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FFDERAL  GOVERNMENf 

AND  THE 

LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 


JOHNSON 


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in  2007  with  funding  from 

IVIicrosoft  Corporation 


http://www.archive.org/details/federalgovernmenOOjohnric,h 


The  Federal  Government 
and  the  Liquor  Traffic 


MECHECUNNAOUA. 

'T^he  original  "Christian  lobbyist."  Mechecunnaqua,  or  "Little 
Turtle,"  promoted  the  first  law  ever  passed  by  Congress  look- 
ing to  the  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic.  The  above  is  a  repro- 
duction of  a  lithographic  portrait  in  W.  A.  Brice's  "History  of  Ft. 
Wayne"  published  in  1868.  The  original  painting  from  which 
the  lithograph  was  taken  was  made  by  Gilbert  Stuart  in  Phila- 
delphia in  1797.  This  original  painting  was  long  since  destroyed 
by  fire. 


THE 

FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

AND  THE 

LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 


By 


WILLIAM  E.  JOHNSON 

Chief  Special  Officer 
United  States  Indian  Service 


Published    by 

The  American  Issue  Publishing  Company 

Westerville,  Ohio 


< 


Copyrighted 

By  The  American  Issue  Publishing  Company 

1911 


Sam  Roberts,  John  Morrison,  Ran- 
dolph W.  Cathay,  George  Williams 
and  Charles  Escalanti  cheerfully  laid 
down  their  lives  in  assisting  my  efforts 
to  protect  the  Children  of  the  Forest 
from  licensed  and  unlicensed  cut- 
throats who  would  take  advantage  of 
their  weakness  to  debauch  them  with 
the  white  man's  whisky.  To  these 
lofty  spirits  this  volume  is  reverently 
and  affectionately  dedicated. 

THE  AUTHOR 

Denver,  Col.,  August  20,  1910 


242250 


Contents 


CHAPTER  1. 
The  Federal  Government  and  the  Liquor  Traffic    .    .     9 

CHAPTER  H. 
Customs  Revenue 32 

CHAPTER  HI. 
Internal  Revenue 54 


CHAPTER  IV. 


% 


The  Revenue  Aftermath 99 

CHAPTER  V. 
The  Army  and  Navy 125 

CHAPTER  VL 
The  Aborigines 160 

CHAPTER  VII. 
The  Federal  Possessions 210 

CHAPTER  VIII. 
Sidelights  on  Congress 222 


The  Federal  Government  and  the 
Liquor  Traffic. 


CHAPTER  I. 

In  jungle  times — in  the  Stone  Age — might  was  the 
only  law  of  conduct.  The  wolf  ate  the  dog,  the  dog 
ate  the  rabbit,  and  the  bear  ate  all  three.  Bear  and 
the  man  attacked  each  other  as  advantage  presented 
itself.  The  right  to  assault  and  subjugate  woman  was 
among  the  most  treasured  prerogatives  of  the  personal 
liberty  code.  Wives  were  secured  by  conquest  and 
capture,  only  to  be  killed  to  make  meat  for  the  hyenas 
when  they  had  served  the  purpose  of  their  master.  The 
doctrine  that  that  government  is  best  which  govern^ 
least  was  in  the  flower  of  its  development — there  wii 
no  government.  This  must  have  been  the  par  excel- 
lence of  all  rule,  granting  the  correctness  of  the  maxim 
stated.  Breech  clouts,  a  cave  and  a  club  constituted 
man's  equipment  for  the  duties  and  responsibilities  c^ 
life.  Stealing  from  one  another  made  up  the  commerce 
of  the  age.  The  elements  of  science  and  religion  had 
not  yet  been  born.  If  two  plus  two  equalled  four,  no- 
body knew  it.  Complete  personal  liberty,  ^he  right  to 
do  what  one's  passions  and  impulses  dictated  regard- 
less of  the  effect  upon  anyone  on  earth,  was  unques- 


10  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

tioned  by  man  or  beast.  But,  as  a  cow  learns  by  ex- 
perience to  consider  the  barbed  fence  in  planning  her 
movements,  just  so  man  began  to  learn  by  experience 
that  his  acts,  in  the  main,  had  some  relation  to  the  acts 
of  other  men.  Herein  began  the  study  of  individual 
rights.  The  elemental  reasoning  powers  which  prompt 
the  buflfalo  to  form  a  herd,  the  ants  to  construct  a  hill, 
the  fish  to  form  a  school  and  geese  to  flock,  led  men  to 
develop  organization  for  mutual  benefit  and  advantage. 
The  constituent  parts  of  any  social  organization  what- 
soever are  made  up  of  contributions  of  individual 
rights.  Men  first  relinquished  the  personal  right  to  kill 
one  another.  Then  followed  the  abandonment  of  the 
right  to  steal ;  then  of  the  right  to  assault.  The  right 
to  torture,  the  right  to  annoy,  the  right  to  spread  dis- 
ease, the  right  to  rape,  the  right  to  own  more  than  one 
wife,  the  right  to  appear  unclothed  in  public,  were 
surrendered  one  by  one.  These  prerogatives  were  not 
given  up  without  a  struggle.  With  each  new  innova- 
tion a  guttural  roar  would  go  up  from  the  many  who 
clung  to  their  caves,  their  breech  clouts,  and  their  right 
to  kill  and  steal.  The  wiser  monkeys,  in  the  interest 
of  the  herd,  compel  a  degree  of  good  behavior  on  the 
part  of  the  conservatives  and  recalcitrants  of  the  flock. 
Just  so  the  primeval  man  hammered  the  rebellious 
Breech  Clouts  into  submission  and  took  from  him  con- 
tributions of  individual  prerogatives  which  the  latter 
mistook  for  personal  liberties.  Throughout  all  the 
ages  Breech  Clouts  has  rent  the  air  with  his  bellow  of 
protest  against  progress.    Breech  Clouts  burned  Gior- 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  ii 

dano  Bruno  at  the  stake  for  saying  that  the  earth  was 
round.  Breech  Clouts  erected  the  Inquisition  in  Spain 
and  the  scaffold  in  Massachusetts.  Breech  Clouts 
fought  progress  all  the  way  around  the  earth  before 
he  would  give  up  polygamy.  Breech  Clouts  drenched 
continents  in  blood  ere  he  would  yield  the  "right"  to 
enslave  his  weaker  neighbor.  And  now  Breech  Clouts 
is  in  the  ditches  defending  his  alleged  right  to  debauch 
and  rob  his  fellow  by  poisoned  drinks — the  same  old 
Breech  Clouts  who  lived  in  the  primal  cave,  arrayed  in 
nothing,  and  who  lived  by  plundering  his  industrious 
neighbor. 

It  is  a  long  tedious  journey  from  this  government 
of  and  by  the  club  of  jungle  days  to  the  modern  idea 
that  it  is  the  duty  of  law  to  protect,  rather  than  to  starve 
and  enslave,  the  weak.  The  idea  is  not  yet  fully  en- 
throned, for  we  find  ourselves  in  the  midst  of  a  struggle 
over  the  doctrine  that  the  state  has  the  right  to  sell 
one  a  commission  to  rob  and  cheat  his  fellow  in  its 
name;  the  theory  that  the  state  has  the  right  to  issue 
letters  of  marque  and  reprisal  against  its  own  citizens. 
In  the  former  days  the  weak  were  subjugated  with  a 
club  at  the  individual  caprice  of  the  strong.  In  these 
latter  days,  the  idea  has  been  modified  into  a  plan  by 
which  the  strong  commissions  one  of  its  number  to 
plunder  and  debauch  the  weak  on  a  percentage  basis 
or  in  return  for  a  stated  revenue.  The  whole  duty  of 
the  state  to  its  weaker  members  has  thus  become  the 
burning  issue  of  the  twentieth  century  throughout  the 
world. 


12  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

It  is  not  the  purpose,  in  this  connection,  to  attempt 
to  trace  the  development  of  law  from  its  beginning. 
Such  would  require  volumes  in  itself.  It  is  only  in- 
tended in  this  chapter  to  make  clear  the  constitucional 
limitations  of  the  Federal  Government  of  the  Un;.tcd 
States  in  dealing  with  the  liquor  problem,  and  the 
corresponding  powers  of  the  states,  in  respect  to  the 
same  subject.  The  Constitution  of  the  United  Stales  is 
the  fruitage  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  struggle  with  the 
Norman  Kings  for  liberty,  a  struggle  of  eight  hundred 
and  forty  years.  The  English  constitution,  developed 
in  this  contest,  was  designed  only  to  protect  the  people 
from  the  King.  It  had  no  relation  to  the  dealings  of 
the  people  among  themselves. 

Neither  did  it  contemplate  protection  of  the  peo- 
ple from  Parliament  or  from  the  courts.  So,  when  the 
Tudor  Kings  sought  to  re-enslave  the  people,  they  made 
use  of  a  corrupt  parliament  to  accomplish  the  end  in 
view.  It  was  under  this  English  Constitution  that  Sir 
John  Hawkins  initiated  the  British  trade  in  African 
slavery,  selling  slaves  at  his  own  price  to  the  Spanish 
settlements  in  America  at  the  mouth  of  his  ships'  can- 
non. And  Sir  John  was  knighted  by  Queen  Elizabeth 
for  his  prowess  and  diligence  in  extending  British 
trade.  It  was,  moreover,  under  this  constitution.  King. 
Parliament  and  courts,  that  the  American  colonists 
were  oppressed  and  goaded  into  declaring  themselves 
free  and  independent  in  1776.  And  so,  when  this  new 
Democracy,  for  the  first  time  in  history,  grasped  all 
the   reins   of   government — legislative,   executive   and 


AxND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC         ,     13 

judicial — it  set  to  work  to  devise  metes  and  bounds 
for  these  three  functions.  This  involved  the  drafting 
of  constitutions,  state  and  national,  the  first  written 
constitutions  in  the  history  of  the  world.  These  docu- 
ments were  prepared  upon  the  theory  that  all  power 
was  in  the  people  and  that  these  departments  of  gov- 
ernment were  created  by  the  people  who  conferred 
upon  them,  in  this  constitution,  certain  specific  pow- 
ers and  no  more.  No  legislative  power  was  conferred 
upon  the  executive  or  upon  the  courts.  The  legislature 
had  no  judicial  or  executive  power.  The  executive 
was  the  sole  custodian  of  executive  functions.  The 
people  retained  all  authority  not  specifically  delegated 
in  the  constitution.  They  even  retained  power  to  re- 
voke or  change  the  constitution ;  which  made  it  merely 
the  expressed  will  of  the  people — instructions  to  the 
three  branches  of  their  government. 

The  state  constitutions  were  adopted  first.  And, 
in  the  making  thereof,  the  influence  of  the  landed  prop- 
erty class  predominated.  It  was  thus  that  the  interests 
of  property  were  diligently  conserved  in  the  writing  of 
these  state  documents.  True,  all  contained  the  Bill  of 
Rights,  which  had  grown  from  five  paragraphs  in  the 
Magna  Charta  to  thirteen  in  the  Bill  of  Rights  of  1689. 
Nobody  would  dispute  the  Bill  of  Rights  any  more 
than  he  would  repudiate  the  Ten  Commandments.  So 
the  original  provisions  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  appeared 
in  all  constitutions,  elaborated  to  sixteen  items  in  the 
Virginia  Constitution  and  to  thirty  in  that  of  Massachu- 
setts. When  it  came  to  the  formation  of  the  Federal  Con- 


14  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

stitution  in  1 787,  diflferent influences  prevailed.  It  had  re- 
quired years  of  agitating  on  the  part  of  such  pamphle- 
teers as  Alexander  Hamilton,  John  Jay  and  John  Adams 
to  lead  the  people  to  consent  to  any  government  at  all  in 
the  place  of  the  Confederacy.  When  they  were  finally 
brought  to  the  point,  reluctantly,  of  consenting  to  the 
constitutional  convention,  they  guarded  its  every  act 
with  the  most  jealous  care.  The  state  governments 
were  something  close  at  home  where  they  could  be 
watched.  But  in  days  when  travel  was  limited  to  the 
horse,  the  Federal  Government  was  a  thing  afar  off, 
where  it  could  not  be  looked  after,  and  upon  which  no 
unnecessary  authority  could  be  safely  conferred.  They 
did  not  propose  to  have  a  remote  authority  meddling 
with  their  local  affairs.  This  feeling  was  well  express- 
ed in  Thomas  Jefferson's  oft  repeated  dictum,  "Thus 
far  shalt  thou  go  and  no  farther."  And  so  the  people 
laid  down  in  their  Federal  Constitution  the  precise 
powers  conferred  upon  the  different  branches  of  their 
government.  A  few  things  upon  which  they  could  not 
agree,  they  ignored.  Posterity  paid  the  cost.  It  re- 
quired the  Civil  War  of  1861-5  to  settle  the  question  of 
State  Sovereignty — one  of  those  things  which  the  peo- 
ple dodged  in  1787. 

In  view  of  the  vociferous  talk  against  "sumptuary 
legislation"  whenever  it  is  proposed  to  protect  person 
and  property  against  depredations  of  the  liquor  deal- 
er, it  is  interesting  to  note  that  two  attempts  to  in- 
duce the  Constitutional  Convention  to  authorize  Con- 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  15 

gress  *'to  enact  sumptuary  laws"  were  defeated.  An 
attempt  was  made  on  August  20,  1787,  when  Mr. 
Mason  made  such  a  motion.  *  He  repeated  the 
motion  on  September  13,  and  lost  again,  f  Sumptu- 
ary legislation  then  referred  only  to  such  matters 
as  style  of  clothing,  kind  of  food,  cost  of  living, 
etc.  In  these  latter  days  politicians  have  ap- 
plied the  term  to  such  matters  as  keeping  saloons, 
gambling  shops,  lotteries  and  all  sorts  of  dives.  The 
modern  cry  against  "sumptuary  legislation"  is  purely 
a  plea  in  behalf  of  the  criminal  classes  who  desire  to 
traffic  in  debauchery.  For  an  hundred  years,  there  has 
never  been  any  serious  demand  for  sumptuary  legisla- 
tion on  the  part  of  anybody.  It  is  as  dead  as  the  Act  of 
Attainder,  and  has  been  for  a  century.  Any  protest 
against  legislation  to  reduce  crime  and  poverty  on  the 
ground  that  it  is  "sumptuary"  legislation  is  suggestive 
of  cant  in  its  most  aggravated  form. 

In  the  Constitution  Congress  was  given  powerf  "to 
lay  and  collect  taxes,  duties,  imposts,  and  excises." 
Power  was  also  given  Congress§  "to  regulate  commerce 
with  foreign  nations,  and  among  the  several  states,  and 


*  The  motion  was  defeated  by  a  vote  of  8  to  3.  Dela- 
ware, Georgia  and  Maryland  voted  "Yes."  New  Hampshire 
Connecticut,  Massachusetts,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  North 
Carolina,  South  Carolina  and  Virginia  voted  "No." 

t     Madison  Papers,  Vol.  Ill,  pp.  1369,  1568. 

t     Constitution,  Art.  i,  Sec.  8,  par.  i. 

§     Id.  par.  3. 


i6  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

with  Indian  tribes."  Further  than  this,  the  Constitu- 
tion* provides  that  "the  powers  not  delegated  to  the 
United  States  by  the  constitution,  nor  prohibited  by  it 
to  the  states,  are  reserved  to  the  states  respectively, 
or  to  the  people."  Under  the  constitution,  therefore,  the 
powers  of  the  Federal  Government  in  dealing  with  the 
liquor  traffic  are  plainly  limited  to  the  matter  of  taxa- 
tion, customs  and  internal  revenue,  and  to  the  traffic 
therein  between  the  states  and  with  Indian  tribes.  Con- 
gress is,  therefore,  shorn  of  all  authority  to  exercise  po- 
lice' powders  except  upon  the  high  seasf  and  in  territory^ 
exclusively  under  Federal  control.  The  Fourteenth 
amendment,  adopted  since  the  Civil  War,  has  been  in- 
voked to  compel  the  states  to  allow  the  operation  of 
saloons.  This  amendment  reads:  "No  state  shall 
make  or  enforce  any  law  which  shall  abridge  the  privi- 
leges or  immunities  of  the  citizens  of  the  United  States, 
nor  deny  to  any  person  within  its  jurisdiction  the  equal 
protection  of  the  laws."  This  provision  was  adopted 
to  safeguard  the  rights  of  the  freedmen  of  the  South, 
but  the  liquor  dealers  seized  upon  it  as  a  shelter  from 
the  prohibition  laws  of  the  states.  The  Federal  courts 
were  petitioned  to  restrain  the  states  in  their  attempts 
to  "abridge  the  privileges  or  immunities  of  the  citi- 
zens" through  their  acts  prohibiting  the  beverage  liq- 
uor traffic.  The  courts,  however,  uniformly  refused  to 
come  to  the  relief  of  the  liquor  dealers,  iffirming  that 


*     Amendment,  Article  X. 

t     Constitution,  Art.  I,  Sec.  8,  par.  9. 

t     Id.,  par.  16. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  17 

the  right  to  sell  intoxicating  liquors  was  not  one  of 
the  privileges  and  immunities  of  citizens  as  contemplat- 
ed by  the  Fourteenth  amendment,*  and  that  the  Fed- 
eral courts  have  nothing  to  do  with  the  exercise  of  po- 
lice powers  on  the  part  of  the  state. 

While  the  Federal  courts  thus  clearly  decline  to 
interfere  with  the  states  in  the  exercise  of  police  pow- 
ers, they  just  as  clearly  support  Congress  in  its  author- 
ity to  ''regulate  commerce  *  *  *  among  the  several 
States."  In  construing  this  provision,  the  courts  have 
affirmed  the  right  of  Congress  to  enact  police  regula- 
tion over  domain  or  over  persons  within  its  exclusive 
jurisdiction,  as  in  Alaska,t  or  even  to  the  adoption  of 
local  option  legislation  in  such  territory.  It  is  further 
held  that  the  power  to  regulate  commerce  with  Indian 
tribes  involves  the  right  to  regulate  commerce  between 
tribes  and  among  members  thereof  even  when  they  are 
outside  of  their  reservations  and  within  the  limits  of 
a  state.J  In  respect  to  police  powers,  the  law  is  most 
definitely  and  clearly  established  that  all  police  pow- 
ers are  retained  by  the  states,  except  those  especially 
delegated  to  Congress,  those  over  the  high  seas,  and 
territory  and  persons  exclusively  under  Federal  juris- 

*  In  re  Hoover,  30  Fed.  Rep.  51;  Lemon  vs.  Wagner,  68 
Iowa,  660,  27,  N.  W.  Rep.  814;  Edgar  vs.  State,  45  Ark.  356; 
United  States  vs.  Riley,  5  Blatch.  204. 

t  U.  S.  vs.  Nelson,  29  Fed.  Rep.  202;  Nelson  vs.  U.  S., 
30  Fed.  Rep.  112;  Territory  vs.  O'Connor,  5  Dak.  397,  41  N. 
W.  Rep.  746. 

t    U.  S.  vs.  Shaw-Mux,  2  Sawy.  364. 


i8  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

diction.  No  powers  were  taken  from  the  state  by  the 
Fourteenth  amendment;  neither  were  any  liberties 
taken  from  the  people. 

The  problems  of  dealing  with  the  liquor  traffic  un- 
der the  Interstate  Commerce  laws,  based  on  the  ex- 
clusive constitutional  power  given  Congress  over  such 
traffic,  have  chiefly  arisen  from  the  great  changes  in  con- 
ditions since  1787,  when  the  Constitution  was  adopted. 
At  that  time  the  means  of  communication  and  transpor- 
tation were  of  the  most  primitive  character.  Each 
manufacturer  sold  his  own  wares  in  his  own  immediate 
vicinity.  The  factory  had  not  taken  the  place  of  the 
shop.  Interstate  commerce  was  but  a  mere  incident 
in  the  life  of  the  people.  Under  the  Confederation, 
states  had  levied  tariffs  on  imports  from  other  states. 
Some  of  these  tariffs  were  retaliatory  imposts  even 
when  the  same  states  were  co-operating  to  shake  off 
foreign  oppression.  The  utmost  fiscal  and  trade  con- 
fusion resulted.  It  was  to  remedy  this  condition  that 
interstate  commerce  was  made  wholly  a  matter  of 
Congressional  control.  But  along  came  the  steam 
engine,  the  telegraph,  the  railway,  the  telephone,  mul- 
tiplying again  and  again  the  facilities  of  intercommuni- 
cation and  transport.  In  the  wake  of  these  inventions 
came  the  partnership,  the  factory,  the  associations, 
the  corporations,  trusts  and  cheap  postage.  Industry 
and  commerce  between  the  states  grew  by  leaps  and 
bounds  until,  instead  of  being  an  incident  to  traffic, 
this  commerce  reached  Brobdingnagian  proportions. 
Nearly  all  trade  has  become  interstate.     New  York 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  19 

buys  her  flour  in  Minnesota  and  Minnesota  buys  her 
clothes  in  New  York.  Texas  sells  her  steers  in  Chi- 
cago and  then  sends  there  after  her  beefsteak.  Cali- 
fornia ships  her  fruit  to  Chicago  and  buys  her  furni- 
ture in  Michigan.  Montana  sends  her  hides  to  St. 
Louis  and  buys  her  shoes  in  the  same  market.  Ar- 
kansas ships  her  apples  to  Boston  and  buys  her 
quinine  in  Detroit.  Utah  sends  her  wool  to  Massa- 
chusetts and  buys  oysters  in  Baltimore  with  the  pro- 
ceeds. The  factory  is  now  built  on  a  railway  siding, 
from  which  its  products  are  poured  into  these  arteries 
of  trade.  Even  the  farmer  ships  his  stock  and  pro- 
ducts to  the  railway  centers  to  be  scattered  thence  to 
the  four  winds.  There  then  arose  the  problem  of  mak- 
ing this  old  rule,  constructed  to  fit  primitive  times, 
apply  to  modern  conditions  as  they  arose.  The  courts, 
however,  have  always  strictly  construed  this  clause  of 
the  Constitution  as  new  problems  were  presented.  It 
has  always  been  ruled  that  Congress  is  supreme  over 
interstate  commerce,  and  Congress  has  always  most 
jealously  guarded  its  prerogatives  in  this  respect. 
This  little  clause  has  been  a  tremendous  force  in 
building  up  the  power  of  the  central  government  over 
that  of  the  states.  In  proportion  as  interstate  com- 
merce grew,  just  in  that  ratio  did  the  central  govern- 
ment develop.  And  as  the  power  at  Washington  was 
magnified,  so  that  of  the  states  correspondingly 
diminished.  Mayors  of  cities  became  of  more  im- 
portance than  governors  themselves.  Traditions 
were  brushed  aside  and  theories  demolished,  in  this 


20  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

resistless  sweep  of  progress.    An  Imperial  Republic  is 
born. 

The  complete  authority  of  Congress  over  terri- 
tory exclusively  under  its  jurisdiction  has  been  shown 
on  these  pages.  There  remain  two  topics  relating  to 
the  power  of  Congress  over  the  liquor  traffic  yet  to  be 
considered,  both  of  which  arise  out  of  the  clause  of  the 
Constitution  conferring  upon  Congress  power  to 
regulate  interstate  commerce.  One  of  these  is  the 
matter  of  adulteration.  The  other  is  the  application 
of  the  Interstate  Commerce  law  to  interstate  ship- 
ments of  intoxicants  into  prohibition  territory.  It  has 
long  since  been  a  settled  principle  of  law  that  it  is 
within  the  police  powers  of  a  state  to  enact  legisla- 
tion safeguarding  the  public  health.  The  constitu- 
tional validity  of  laws  prohibiting  the  adulteration  of 
food  and  beverages  has  never  been  seriously  disputed.* 
The  state  legislation  on  this  subject  has  not  been  fully 
effective  for  the  reason  that  it  could  not  apply  to  inter- 
state traffic.  The  fierce  competition  of  the  times  had 
led  to  notorious  adulteration  of  numerous  items  of 
food  and  drink  of  interstate  traffic.  After  a  long, 
tedious  propaganda,  led  chiefly  by  Dr.  H.  W.  Wiley, 
Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Chemistry  of  the  Department 
of  Agriculture,  Congress  passedf  *'an  act  for  pre- 
venting the  manufacture,  sale,  or  transportation  of 
adulterated  or  misbranded  or  poisonous  or  deleterious 

♦Exp.     Kohler.  74  Cal.  38,  construing  Act  of  March  7. 
1887. 

t     Approved  June  30,  1906.     Public,  No.  384. 


AND  THE   LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  21 

foods,  drugs,  medicines,  and  liquors,  and  for  regulat- 
ing the  traffic  therein."  The  principal  opposition  to  this 
measure  came  from  the  rectifiers  of  distilled  liquors. 
This  act  has  already  revolutionized  the  character  of 
numerous  items  of  food  and  drink.  While  some  of  the 
regulations  drafted  to  carry  this  law  into  eflfect  have 
been  attacked,  the  constitutionality  of  the  Act  itself 
has  not  been  seriously  questioned.  Congress  remains 
the  undisputed  master  of  interstate  traffic,  in  the 
matter  of  adulteration. 

In  the  exercise  of  their  police  powers  the  states 
have  enacted  laws  prohibiting,  in  whole  or  in  part,  the 
traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors  within  their  borders.  In 
the  enforcement  of  these  laws,  these  states  have  come 
into  constant  collision  with  the  provisions  of  the  Fed- 
eral constitution  relating  to  the  interstate  commerce 
powers  of  Congress.  Again  and  again  have  the  states 
protested,  but  Congress  has  tenaciously  refused  to 
give  up  or  appear  to  surrender  any  part  of  her  authority 
over  interstate  traffic.  Thus  has  been  created  a  situ- 
ation that  has  been  a  source  of  irritation  for  twenty 
years.  And  the  increasingly  drastic  character  of  anti- 
liquor  legislation  in  the  states  has  served  to  increase 
in  acutene§s  this  unsatisfactory  condition.  The  origi- 
nal rule,*  determined  in  1827,  in  respect  to  goods  im- 
ported from  foreign  countries,  was  that  any  article  of 
commerce  authorized  by  Congress  to  be  imported  from 
a  foreign  country  continued  to  be  an  article  of  foreign 

*     Brown  vs.  Maryland,  12  Wheat.  415,  449. 


22  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

commerce  until  it  reached  the  importer  and  while  it 
remained  in  his  hands  in  its  unbroken  condition. 
And,  moreover,  such  importer  could  sell  such  article 
in  the  original  package  in  which  it  was  imported, 
without  regard  to  state  or  local  laws.  The  question 
subsequently  arose  as  to  the  application  of  this  prin- 
ciple to  commerce  between  the  states.  To  test  the 
matter,  three  cases  were  selected  for  appeal  by  the 
liquor  dealers.  Rufus  Choate  and  Daniel  Webster 
were  employed  to  prosecute  the  appeals  with  the 
view  of  extending  the  principle  enunciated  in  1827  to 
interstate  commerce.*  The  efforts  of  the  liquor  men 
were  defeated  in  this  attempt,  chiefly  on  the  grounds 
that  Congress  had  not  exercised  its  powers  by  enact- 
ing legislation,  whereas  it  had  legislated  in  the  matter 
of  foreign  commerce.  In  summing  up  the  cases  in  his 
decision,  Chief  Justice  Taney  said: 

"Upon  the  whole,  the  law  of  New  Hampshire  is  in  my 
judgment  a  valid  one.  For  although  the  gin  sold  was  an  im- 
port from  another  state,  and  Congress  has  clearly  the  power 
to  regulate  such  importations,  under  the  grant  of  power  to 
regulate  commerce  among  the  several  states,  yet,  as  Congress 
has  made  no  regulation  on  this  subject,  the  traffic  in  the 
article  may  be  lawfully  regulated  by  the  state  as  soon  as  it 
is  landed  in  its  territory,  and  a  tax  imposed  upon  it,  or  a  li- 
cense required,  or  a  sale  altogether  prohibited,  according  to 
the  policy  which  the  state  may  suppose  to  be  its  interest  or 
duty  to  pursue." 

*  The  cases  argued  were  Thurlow  vs.  Mass;  Fletcher  vs. 
R.  I.,  and  Pierce  vs.  N.  H.,  the  cause  being  generally  known 
as  "License   Cases,"  5   Howard,  504,  586. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  23 

During  the  next  forty  years  it  was  the  settled 
doctrine  that  intoxicating  liquors  imported  from  one 
state  to  another  were  subject  to  the  laws  of  the  state 
into  which  they  were  taken  and  could  not  be  sold  in 
such  state,  either  in  original  packages  or  otherwise, 
except  as  the  laws  of  such  state  might  prescribe.  It 
was  held  that  even  if  the  laws  of  any  state  did  inci- 
dentally affect  foreign  or  interstate  commerce,  such 
laws  did  not  conflict  with  the  Federal  constitution 
unless  they  discriminated  against  foreign  commerce. 
In  1888,  signs  of  trouble  came  to  the  Prohibitionists 
as  to  interstate  commerce.  The  state  of  Iowa  had 
enacted  a  law  forbidding  any  common  carrier  to  bring 
intoxicating  liquors  within  the  state.  A  case*  arising 
under  this  statute,  known  as  Bowman  vs.  Railway, 
was  carried  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court, 
where  it  was  declared  unconstitutional  as  an  attempt 
to  regulate  interstate  commerce.f  This  emboldened 
the  liquor  dealers  to  further  activities  along  the  same 
line.  Two  years  later  they  were  rewarded  in  the 
famous  Original  Package  decision^  in  which  the 
former  decision  in  the  License  cases  of  1847  was 
directly  overruled,  and  in  which  it  was  further  decided 
that  liquors  imported  from  without  a  state  could  be 

*  Bowman  vs.  C.  &  N.  W.  R.  R.  Co.,  125  U.  S.  465,  8 
Sup.  Ct.  Rep.  689. 

t  Chief  Justice  Waite  and  Justices  Harlan  and  Gray  dis- 
sented. 

t  Leisy  vs.  Hardin,  135  U.  S.  100,  reversing  78  Iowa 
286. 


24  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

sold  by  the  importer  in  the  original  packages  regard- 
less of  state  law.  This  revolutionary  decision  led  to 
the  passage  of  the  Wilson  Act  as  detailed  in  Chapter 
VIII,  making  such  shipments  amenable  to  state  law 
"upon  arrival  in  such  state  or  territory."  This  was 
construed  to  mean  when  the  shipment  had  reached 
the  hands  of  the  consignee.  Under  this  decision  it  is 
the  practice  of  liquor  dealers  to  make  shipments  of 
liquor  into  Prohibition  territory,  which  shipments  are 
under  protection  of  the  interstate  commerce  law  until 
they  reach  the  possession  of  the  consignee.  To  re- 
move this  interference  of  the  Federal  government  with 
the  police  powers  of  the  state  is  one  of  the  chief  de- 
mands of  the  Prohibitionists. 

As  to  the  constitutional  authority  of  a  state  to 
prohibit  the  beverage  liquor  traffic,  as  against  any  in- 
herent or  natural  right  of  a  citizen  to  sell,  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  has  uniformly  and  firmly  ruled 
with  the  state.  The  basis  for  the  claim  that  it  is  the 
natural  right  of  a  man  to  engage  in  any  sort  of  busi- 
ness has  its  origin  in  the  Magna  Charta  of  King  John,, 
which  says  *'no  free  man  shall  be  taken,  or  imprisoned, 
or  disseised,  or  outlawed,  or  exiled,  or  in  any  ways 
destroyed,  nor  will  we  go  upon  him,  nor  will  we  send 
upon  him  unless  by  the  lawful  judgment  of  his  peers 
or  by  the  law  of  the  land."  In  the  reissue  of  the 
Charter  by  Henry  III,  these  words  were  added  after 
the  word  "disseised,"  "no  free  man  shall  be  deprived 
of  his  liberties  or  of  his  free  customs."  Practically 
the  same  idea  was  expressed  in  Articles  IV,  V,  VI,  VII 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  25 

of  the  original  amendments  to  the  Constitution  of  the 
United  States.  They  were  further  elaborated  and 
more  explicitly  stated  in  the  Fourteenth  amendment 
adopted  after  the  Civil  War.  During  the  "eighties," 
when  the  states  were  engaged  in  so  many  contests 
looking  to  constitutional  prohibition,  these  measures 
were  savagely  attacked  in  the  courts  by  liquor  dealers 
raising  constitutional  questions  involving  matters  of 
"compensation,"  "impairment  of  contracts,"  and  the 
inherent  or  natural  right  of  any  person  to  engage  in 
any  sort  of  business,  regardless  of  its  effect  upon  the 
community.  The  first  of  the  important  decisions  in- 
volving inherent  rights  resulting  from  this  contest 
was  that  in  the  case  of  Bartmeyer  vs.  Iowa,*  in  which 
the  court  flatly  declared  that  "so  far  as  such  a  right 
[to  sell  intoxicating  liquors]  exists,  it  is  not  one  of 
the  rights  growing  out  of  citizenship  of  the  United 
States."  Following  this,  another  decision  was  rendered 
in  a  lottery  casef  in  which  similar  principles  were  in- 
volved. The  state  of  Mississippi  had  chartered  a  lot- 
tery in  1867.  Two  years  later  it  had  adopted  a  con- 
stitution prohibiting  the  same.  It  was  under  Section 
10,  Article  i,  forbidding  a  state  to  pass  laws  impairing 
existing  contracts,  that  the  plaintiffs  sought  relief. 
Chief  Justice  Waite,  in  rendering  the  decision  of  the 
Court  in  the  case,  said: 

"No  legislature  can  bargain  away  the  public  health  and 
the  public  morals.    The  people  themselves  cannot  do  it,  much 

*     18  Wallace,  129. 

t     Stone  vs.  Mississippi,  loi  U.  S.  Rep.,  p.  815. 


26  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

less  their  servants.  The  supervision  of  both  these  subjects 
of  government  power  is  continuing  in  their  nature,  and  they 
are  to  be  dealt  with  as  the  special  exigencies  of  the  moment 
may  require.  Government  is  organized  with  a  view  to  their 
preservation,  and  cannot  divest  itself  of  the  power  to  pro- 
vide them.  For  this  purpose  the  largest  legislative  discre- 
tion is  allowed  and  the  discretion  cannot  be  parted  with  any 
more  than  power  itself." 

The  next  important  decision  grew  out  of  an  attack 
upon  the  law  in  the  famous  case  known  as  Beer  Com- 
pany vs.  Massachusetts,  decided  in  1877.  The  Boston 
Beer  Company  had  been  granted  a  perpetual  charter 
in  1828.  It  was  complained  that  the  Prohibitory  law 
of  1869  was  invalid  for  the  reason  stated  in  the 
Stone  vs.  Mississippi  case.  Justice  Bradley,  in  decid- 
ing the  case,  had  said  :*  "If  the  public  safety  or  the 
public  morals  require  the  discontinuance  of  the  manu- 
facturing or  traffic,  the  hand  of  the  legislature  cannot 
be  stayed  from  providing  for  its  discontinuance,  by  the 
incidental  inconvenience  which  individuals  or  corpora- 
tions may  suffer.  All  rights  are  held  subject  to  the 
police  power  of  the  state."  For  the  purpose  of  assail- 
ing the  Bradley  decision  two  typical  cases  were  se- 
lected, Mulger  vs.  Kansas  and  Kansas  vs.  Ziebold. 
Both  of  these  men  were  Kansas  brewers  whose  busi- 
ness had  been  destroyed  by  the  Prohibitory  law.     In 

*    97  U.  S.  Rep.,  p.  32. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  27 

rendering  the  decision*  of  the  court,  December  5,  1887, 
Justice  Harlan  said: 

"There  is  no  justification  for  holding  that  the  state,  under 
the  guise  of  merely  police  regulations,  is  here  aiming  to  de- 
prive the  citizen  of  his  constitutional  rights;  for  we  cannot 
shut  our  view  to  the  fact,  within  the  knowledge  of  all,  that  the 
public  health,  the  public  morals  and  the  public  safety  may  be 
endangered  by  the  general  use  of  intoxicating  drinks;  nor  the 
fact,  established  by  statistics  accessible  to  every  one,  that  the 
disorder,  pauperism  and  crime  prevalent  in  the  country  are 
in  some  degree  at  least  traceable  to  this  evil.    *     *     *     * 

"The  principle  that  no  person  shall  be  deprived  of  life, 
liberty  or  property  without  due  process  of  law,  was  embod- 
ied, in  substance,  in  the  Constitution  of  nearly  all,  if  not  all, 
of  the  several  states  at  the  time  of  the  adoption  of  the 
fourteenth  amendment  thereto,  and  it  has  never  been  regarded 
as  incompatible  with  the  principle,  equally  vital,  because  es- 
sential to  the  peace  and  safety  of  society,  that  all  property 
in  this  country  is  held  under  the  implied  obligation  that  the 
owners'  use  of  it  shall  not  be  injurious  to  the  community.  *  * 

"The  power  which  the  states  unquestionably  have  of  pro- 
hibiting such  use  by  individuals  of  their  property  as  shall  be 
prejudicial  to  the  health,  the  morals  or  the  safety  of  the  pub- 
lic is  not,  and — consistently  with  the  existence  and  safety  of 
organized  society — cannot  be  burdened  with  the  condition 
that  the  state  must  compensate  such  individual  owners  for 
pecuniary  losses  they  sustain  by  reason  of  their  not  being 
permitted  by  a  noxious  use  of  their  property  to  inflict  injury  up- 

*  123  U.  S.  Rep.  623.  See  also,  In  re  Raher,  140  U.  S.,  545; 
Cantini  vs.  Tillman,  54  Fed.  Rep.  969;  IVIunn  vs.  Illinois,  94  U, 
S.,  113;  Tanner  vs.  Alliance,  29  Fed.  Rep.  196;  Foster  vs. 
Kansas,  112  U.  S.,  205;  Eilenbecker  vs.  Plymouth  County,  134 
U.  S.,  31;  Kansas  vs.  Bradley,  26  Fed.  Rep.  289;  In  re  Bros- 
nahan,  18  Fed.  Rep.  62. 


2S  THE    FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

on  the  community.  The  exercise  of  the  police  power  by  the  de- 
struction of  property  which  is  itself  a  public  nuisance,  or  the 
prohibition  of  its  use  in  a  particular  way,  whereby  its  value 
becomes  depreciated,  is  very  different  from  taking  property 
for  public  use,  or  of  depriving  a  person  of  property  without 
due  process  of  law.  In  one  case,  a  nuisance  only  is  abated; 
in  the  other,  an  unoffending  property  is  taken  away  from  an 
innocent  owner." 

The  scope  of  this  decision  was  somewhat  enlarged 
shortly  after  in  the  case  of  Kidd  vs.  Pearson,  in  which 
the  principle  was  established  that  a  state  could  sup- 
press the  beverage  manufacture  of  liquor  even  when 
the  liquor  was  being  manufactured  for  sale  in  another 
state.  This  decision  was  quickly  followed  by  the 
crowning  deliverance  of  the  series,  that  rendered  in  the 
case  of  Crowley  vs.  Christensen.*  Justice  Field,  in 
rendering  the  decision  of  the  Court,  said : 

"It  is  undoubtedly  true  that  it  is  the  right  of  every  citi- 
zen of  the  United  States  to  pursue  any  lawful  trade  or  busi- 
ness, under  such  restrictions  as  are  imposed  upon  all  persons 
of  the  same  age,  sex  and  condition.  But  the  possession  and 
enjoyment  of  all  rights  are  subject  to  such  reasonable  con- 
ditions as  may  be  deemed  by  the  governing  authority  of  the 
country  essential  to  the  safety,  health,  peace  and  good  order  and 
morals  of  the  community.  Even  liberty,  the  greatest  of  all 
rights,  is  not  unrestricted  license  to  act  according  to  one's  own 
will.  It  is  only  freedom  from  restraint  under  conditions  es- 
sential to  the  equal  enjoyment  of  the  same  rights  by  others. 
It  is  then  liberty  regulated  by  law.  The  right  to  acquire, 
enjoy  and  dispose  of  property  is  declared  in  the  Constitutions 
of  several  states  to  be  one  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  man. 
But  this  declaration  is  not  held  to  preclude  the  legislature  of 

♦     137  U.  S.  Rep.,  86. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  29 

any  state  from  passing  laws  respecting  the  acquisition,  en- 
joyment and  disposition  of  property.  What  contracts  re 
specting  its  acquisition  and  disposition  shall  be  valid,  and 
What  void  or  voidable;  when  they  shall  be  in  writing,  and 
when  orally;  and  by  what  instruments  they  may  be  conveyed 
or  mortgaged  are  subjects  of  constant  legislation.  And  as  to 
the  enjoyment  of  property,  the  rule  is  general  that  it  must  be 
accompanied  by  such  limitations  as  will  not  impair  the  equal 
enjoyment  to  others  of  their  property.  Sic  utere  tuo  ut  alien- 
um  non  laedas  is  a  maxim  of  universal  application. 

"For  the  pursuit  of  any  lawful  trade  or  business,  the 
law  imposes  similar  conditions.  Regulations  respecting  them 
are  almost  infinite,  varying  with  the  nature  of  the  business. 
Some  occupations  by  their  noise  in  their  pursuit,  some  by  the 
odors  they  engender,  and  some  by  the  dangers  accompanying 
them,  require  regulations  as  to  the  locality  in  which  they 
shall  be  conducted.  Some  by  the  dangerous  character  of  the 
articles  used,  manufactured  or  sold,  require,  also,  special 
qualifications  in  the  parties  to  use,  manufacture  or  sell  them. 
All  this  is  but  common  knowledge,  and  would  hardly  be 
mentioned  were  it  not  for  the  position  often  taken  and  ve- 
hemently pressed,  that  there  is  something  wrong  in  principle 
and  objectionable  in  similar  restrictions  when  applied  to  the 
selling  by  retail,  in  small  quantities,  of  spirituous  and  intoxi- 
<:ating  liquors.  It  is  urged  that,  as  the  liquors  are  used  as  a 
beverage,  and  the  injury  following  them,  if  taken  in  excess 
is  voluntarily  inflicted,  and  is  confined  to  the  party  offending, 
their  sale  should  be  without  restrictions,  the  contention  being 
that  what  a  man  shall  drink,  equally  with  what  he  shall  eat, 
is  not  properly  matter  for  legislation. 

"There  is  in  this  questioVi  an  assumption  of  fact  which 
does  not  exist,  that  when  liquo'rs  are  taken  in  excess  the  in- 
juries are  confined  to  the  party  oflfending.  The  injury,  it  is 
true,  first  falls  upon  him  in  his  health,  which  the  habit  under- 
mines; in  his  morals,  which  it  weakens;  and  in  the  self-abase- 
ment which  it  creates.     But,  as  it  leads  to  neglect  of  business 


30  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

and  waste  of  property  and  general  demoralization,  it  affects 
those  who  are  immediately  connected  with  and  dependent 
upon  him.  By  the  general  concurrence  of  every  civilized  and 
Christian  community,  there  are  few  sources  of  crime  and  mis- 
ery equal  to  the:  dram  shop,  where  intoxicating  liquors  in 
small  quantities,  to  be  drunk  at  the  time,  are  sold  indiscrimi- 
nately to  all  parties  applying.  The  statistics  of  every  state 
show  a  greater  amount  of  crime  and  misery  attributable  to 
the  use  of  ardent  spirits  obtained  at  these  retail  liquor  saloons 
than  any  other  source.  The  sale  of  such  liquor  in  this  way 
has  therefore  been,  at  all  times,  by  the  courts  of  every  state, 
proper  subject  of  legislative  regulation.  Not  only  may  a  li- 
cense be  exacted  from  the  keeper  of  the  saloon  before  a 
single  glass  of  his  liquor  can  be  disposed  of,  but  restrictions 
may  be  imposed  as  to  the  class  of  persons  to  whom  they  may 
b€  sold,  and  the  hours  of  the  day  and  the  days  of  the  week 
on  which  the  saloons  may  be  opened.  The  sale  in  that  form 
may  be  absolutely  prohibited.  It  is  a  question  of  public 
expediency  and  public  morality,  and  not  Federal  law.  The 
police  power  of  the  state  is  fully  competent  to  regulate  the 
business — to  mitigate  its  evils  or  suppress  it  entirely.  There 
is  no  inherent  right  in  a  citizen  to  thus  sell  intoxicating  liquor 
by  retail;  it  is  aot  a  privilege  of  a  citizen  of  a  state  or  a  citi- 
zen of  the  United  States.  As  it  is  a  business  attended  with 
great  danger  to  the  community,  it  may,  as  already  said,  be 
entirely  prohibited,  or  be  permitted  under  such  conditions  as 
will  limit  to  the  utmost  its  evils." 

In  this  series  of  decisions,  the  liquor  dealers  met 
defeats  of  the  most  vital  and  overw^helming  character. 
They  won  some  comfort  under  the  interstate  commerce 
decisions,  enabling  them  to  ship  liquors  to  a  consignee 
in  a  prohibition  state,  which  right  will  doubtless  be 
taken  from  them  by  early  Congressional  action.  But 
they  had  irrevocably  lost  all  of  their  main  contentions 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  31 

as  to  the  impairment  of  contracts,  as  to  taking  property 
without  compensation,  as  to  police  powers  of  the  state, 
as  to  the  Fourteenth  Amendment  and  as  to  the  inher- 
ent or  natural  rights  of  men.  With  the  modification  of 
the  Interstate  Commerce  law  by  Congress,  so  as  to  pre- 
vent Federal  interference  with  the  states  in  dealing 
with  this  subject,  the  way  will  be  fully  open  to  the 
states  more  successfully  to  stay  the  hands  of  the  wick- 
ed, designing  men  who  would  make  their  business  that 
of  oppressing,  debauching  and  maltreating  the  weak. 
A  nation  does  not  consist  of  mountains  and  hills  and 
valleys  and  mines  and  lakes  and  rivers;  it  is  the 
character  of  the  people  that  makes  the  glory  of  a  Re- 
public or  Empire.  If  there  is  any  reason  for  preventing 
ghouls  from  scuttling  the  nation's  ships  of  war,  or  pois- 
oning the  public  water  supply,  the  same  reasons  with 
the  same  force  counsel  the  restraining  of  treasonable 
men  from  rotting  its  citizenship  by  traffic  in  debauch- 
ery. The  United  States  Supreme  Court  has  armed  the 
states  to  finish  the  work  thus  well  begun.  Let  them 
complete  the  task. 


Customs  Revenue. 


CHAPTER  11. 

From  the  beginning  of  the  government  up  to  the 
year  i8i6,  while  the  customs  revenue  was  partly  in- 
fluenced by  foreign  considerations,  it  was  largely  a 
matter  of  fiscal  concern.  Since  that  period  foreign  in- 
terests have  disappeared,  while  fiscal  and  political  re- 
quirements have  forged  to  the  front.  The  debate,  since 
that  time,  has  chiefly  revolved  around  proposals  for 
"protection,"  "free  trade"  and  "tariflf  for  revenue  only." 
The  right  to  import,  in  earlier  times,  was  usually 
associated  with  the  right  to  sell.  The  right  to  import 
seemed  to  imply  the  right  to  sell.  This  theory,  how- 
ever, was  sentenced  to  death  by  the  United  States  Su- 
preme Court  in  1847,  after  one  of  the  greatest  legal 
battles  of  the  century.  The  litigation  grew  out  of  the 
aggressive  policy  adopted  in  the  early  forties  by  the 
various  states,  of  enacting  drastic  licensing  and  local 
option  laws.  In  order  to  contest  this  legislation,  the 
liquor  dealers  banded  themselves  together  and  employ- 
ed Rufus  Choate  and  Daniel  Webster,  the  two  leading 
constitutional  lawyers  of  the  period,  to  defend  their  in- 
terests. Three  test  cases,  wherein  the  defendants  in  the 
Court  below  had  been  convicted  of  violating  the  state 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  33 

laws  restricting  or  forbidding  the  selling  of  liquor, 
were  appealed  to  the  United  States  Supreme  Court,* 
The  first  argument  was  held  in  1845,  but  no  decision 
was  reached. 

In  1847,  the  subject  was  reargued  before  seven  of 
the  nine  justices.  In  his  argument,  Mr.  Webster  pre- 
sented the  general  proposition  that  the  "right  to  im- 
port implied  the  right  to  sell."  Mr.  Choatef  confined 
his  argument  to  the  contention  that  the  legislation 

♦  These  cases  were  Thurlow  vs.  Massachusetts,  Fletcher 
vs.  Rhode  Island,  and  Pierce  vs.  New  Hampshire. 

t  In  this  litigation,  Choate  and  Webster  appeared 
simply  as  attorneys,  and  not  to  express  their  own  personal 
views.  Webster,  at  least,  was  noted  for  his  drinking  habits, 
yet  both  were  friends  of  the  temperance  movement.  In  the 
winter  of  1846,  Mr.  Choate  delivered  a  dramatic  address  in 
the  Massachusetts  Senate  in  behalf  of  measures  to  restrict  the 
liquor  traffic.  In  his  impassioned  manner,  he  said  (Journal 
of  the  American  Temperance  Union,  June,  1846,  p.  84) : 

"The  argument  is  that  they  live  in  a  free  country.  'Your 
temperance  fanatics  shall  never  set  their  foot  upon  our  necks. 
It  is  like  going  into  Indian  captivity  —  or  like  the  middle 
passage  in  a  Portuguese  slaver.'  And  so.  Sir,  I  suppose  the 
crew  of  the  Kent  Indianman  thought.  'We  live  in  a  free 
country  and  if  we  can't  carry  a  little  cask  of  spirit  to  sea  with 
us,  let  the  ship  and  passengers  all  go  to  the  bottom  together.' 
And  so  the  little  cask  of  rum  was  taken,  and  from  that  cask 
a  fire  was  kindled,  which  burned  that  noble  ship  of  1,100  tons, 
and  eighty  human  beings  were  sent  down  into  a  coffinless 
grave,  and  nothing  but  the  providence  of  God  interfered  to 
save  five  hundred  others.  Who  is  not  satisfied  that  the  law 
of  force,  if  gentlemen  please  to  call  it  so,  ought  to  have  been 
applied  when  moral  suasion  failed?  I  would  leave  this  ab- 
stract question  with  a  jury  of  drinking  men;  I  know  they 
would  decide  it  right.  Sir, — we  apply  the  law  of  force  in  every 
case  when  a  mighty  evil  is  in  progress.  We  should  break  in- 
to any  man's  house,  at  the  cry  of  murder,  though  it  is  his 


34  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

under  discussion  interfered  with  the  existing  commer- 
cial treaties  with  France.  The  contention  of  the  liquor 
dealers  was  not  sustained.  The  principle  was  thus  es- 
tablished that  the  states  had  a  right  to  regulate  or 
prohibit  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors.  In  this  de- 
cision the  foundation  was  laid  for  future  prohibitory 
legislation,  and  a  starting  point  established  for  sub- 


castle — you  would  knock  any  man  down  if  you  saw  him  kill- 
ing his  wife  and  child.  You  would  not  coolly  stand  by  and  see 
a  man  cut  his  own  throat — you  would  interfere,  because  in 
all  of  these  cases  you  would  know  certainly  there  must  be 
something  like  begun  or  confirmed  insanity.  Sir,  I  insist  that 
we  need  a  law  that  prohibits  men  from  drinking  rum.  Let  me 
refer  you  here  to  facts.  Mr.  Senator  Grundy,  after  thirty- 
years'  extensive  practice  in  the  law,  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  use  of  ardent  spirit  has  occasioned  nine-tenths  of  all 
pauperism,  and  three-quarters  of  all  the  crimes  in  our  coun- 
try. And  from  the  statistical  tables,  I  learn  that  ninety-nine 
in  a  hundred,  of  all  who  commit  suicide  in  the  world,  are  the 
immediate  or  remote  victims  of  intemperance;  seven-tenths 
of  all  who  have  died  of  cholera,  both  in  this  country,  and  in 
Europe,  were  spirit  drinkers,  and  one-half  were  decidedly  in- 
temperate. 

"In  a  single  year  40,000  persons  in  our  own  country  go 
down  to  a  drunkard's  grave. 

"Away  with  the  idea  that  moral  suasion  would  prevent 
all  this.  How  much  moral  suasion  do  you  believe  would  have 
been  necessary  to  have  prevailed  with  the  lamented  physician 
of  a  town  near  by,  whose  appetite  for  spirit  was  so  strong, 
that  when  he  saw  rum  for  sale,  in  defiance  of  the  temperance 
law,  upon  the  observance  of  which  law  he  hung  all  his  hopes, 
he  exclaimed,  'My  God,  there  is  no  help  for  me!'  and  taking 
his  pistol,  blew  his  brains  out  in  his  study.  How  much  moral 
suasion  do  you  believe  would  have  been  necessary  to  have 
prevailed  with  that  liquor  seller,  who,  when  urged  by  the 
physician  referred  to,  never  to  sell  him  any  more,  replied, 
'Damn  you,  T  will  sell  to  who  I  have  a  mind  to.  and  as  much 
as  I  have  a  mind  to!'" 

On   January   13,    1832,   then    in    the   zenith    of   his   glory. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  35 

sequent  United  States  Supreme  Court  decisions  on  the 
subject  of  the  prohibition  of  the  liquor  traffic. 

In  rendering  the  decision  of  the  Court,  Chief  Jus- 
tice Taney  said : 

"Every  state,  therefore,  may  regulate  its  own  internal 
traffic,  according  to  its  own  judgment,  and  upon  its  own 
views  of  the  interest  and  well-being  of  its  citizens.  I  am  not 
aware  that  these  principles  have  ever  been  questioned.  .  .  . 
Although  a  state  is  bound  to  receive  and  permit  the  sale  by 
the  importer  of  any  article  of  merchandise  which  Congress 
authorizes  to  be  imported,  it  is  not  to  furnish  a  market  for 
it,  nor  to  abstain  from  the  passage  of  any  law  which  it  may 
deem  necessary  or  advisable  to  guard  the  health  and  morals 


Daniel  Webster  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Congressional 
Temperance  Society  in  Washington.  Lewis  Cass  presided. 
Speeches  were  made  by  Senator  Felix  Grundy,  Senator  Theo- 
dore Frelinghuysen,  Senator  Isaac  C.  Bates  and  President 
John   Quincy  Adams.     Mr.  Webster  said: 

'"One  main  benefit,  perhaps  the  principal  one,  which  may 
be  expected  from  this  meeting,  is  the  united  expression  of 
opinion,  by  gentlemen  from  all  parts  of  the  country,  of  the 
effect  which  has  been  produced  by  the  Societies  for  the  pro- 
motion of  Temperance.  I  rise,  therefore,  Sir,  not  for  the  pur- 
pose of  making  an  argument,  but  of  expressing  clearly  and 
strongly  rtiy  own  opinion  on  this  point. 

"I  shall  not  follow  those  who  have  already  spoken,  by 
remarking  at  any  length,  on  the  general  subject  of  intemper- 
ance, as  a  personal,  domestic,  social  and  political  evil.  Noth- 
ing less,  certainly,  can  be  said  of  it,  than  that  it  is  a  great 
vice;  and,  in  an  extraordinary  degree,  the  parent  and  con- 
comitant of  other  great  vices.  In  taking  the  mensuration  of 
the  mischiefs  which  it  brings  to  men,  it  seems  to  me  that  we 
ought  to  regard,  after  all,  not  so  much  its  consequences  to 
their  comforts,  their  reasonable  enjoyment,  their  health,  or 
their  life,  as  its  effects  on  their  moral  and  intellectual  char- 
acter; because  all  vice  is  essentially  dreadful  as  it  affects  the 
character   and   morals  of  an   immortal   being,   and  this   sinks 


36  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

of  its  citizens,  although  such  law  may  discourage  importation, 
or  diminish  the  profits  of  the  importer  or  lessen  the  revenue 
to  the  general  government. 

"If  any  state  deems  the  retail  and  internal  traffic  in  ardent 
spirits  injurious  to  its  citizens,  and  calculated  to  produce  idle- 
ness, vice  and  debauchery,  I  see  nothing  in  the  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  to  prevent  it  from  regulating  and  re- 
straining the  traffic,  or  from  prohibiting  it  altogether,  if  it 
thinks  proper." 

Six  of  the  seven  justices  wrote  opinions  concur- 
ring, and  the  seventh.  Justice  Nelson,  concurred  .with- 
out comment.     Said  Justice  Grier: 

"It  is  not  necessary  for  the  purpose  of  justifying  the  state 
legislation  now  under  consideration,  to  array  the  appalling 
statistics  of  misery,  pauperism  and  crime  which  have  their 
origin  in  the  use  or  abuse  of  ardent  spirits.    The  police  power, 


its  victim  in  the  sight  of  God  and  man  below  the  grade  of 
moral,  to  that  of  brutal  beings.  Doubtless  more  than  other 
vices,  this  unfits  the  mind  for  the  cultivation  or  growth  of  any 
plant  of  virtue.  It  strikes  a  blow,  a  deadly  blow,  at  once,  on 
all  us  capacities,  and  all  its  sensibilities.  It  renders  it  alike 
incapable  of  pious  feelings,  of  social  regard,  and  of  domestic 
aflFections.  One  of  its  earliest  visible  consequences,  is  lessen- 
ing of  self-respect,  a  consciousness  of  personal  degradation, 
a  humbling  conviction,  felt  by  its  victim,  that  he  has  sunk, 
or  is  sinking,  from  his  proper  rank,  as  an  intellectual  and 
moral  being.  The  mind  becomes  at  last  reconciled  to  its 
own  degradation  and  prostration;  and  the  influence  of  just 
motives  is  no  longer  felt  by  him.  Every  high  principle,  every 
noble  purpose,  every  pure  affection,  becomes  extinguished, 
in  the  insane  surrender  of  reason  and  character  to  low*  appe- 
tite. Just  so  far  as  human  virtues  have  to  do  with  the  mind, 
and  the  heart  of  man,  just  so  far  intemperance,  by  hardening 
the  one,  and  blinding  the  other,  shows  itself  a  foe  to  them  all. 
Habitual  intemperance  is,  indeed,  a  deliberate  and  contemp- 
tuous rejection  of  that  gift  of  REASON,  with  which  the 
Creator  has  endowed  man;  a  voluntary  and  mad  surrender  of 
human  rank,  and  eager  plunging  fron^  human  intellect,  human 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  37 

which  is  exclusively  in  the  states,  is  alone  competent  to  the 
correction  of  these  great  evils,  and  all  measures  of  restraint 
or  prohibition  necessary  to  effect  the  purpose  are  within  the 
scope  of  that  authority.  There  is  no  conflict  of  power,  or  of 
legislation  as  between  the  states  and  the  United  States,  each 
acting  within  its  sphere,  and  for  the  public  good;  and  if  loss 
of  revenue  should  accrue  to  the  United  States  from  a  dimin- 
ished consumption  of  ardent  spirits,  she  will  be  a  gainer  a 
thousand  fold  in  the  health  and  happiness  of  the  people." 

Justice  Woodbury  said : 

"The  power  to  forbid  things  is  surely  as  extensive,  and 
rests  upon  as  broad  principles  of  public  security  and  sound 
morals,  as  that  to  exclude  persons.  And  yet  who  does  not 
know  that  slaves  have  been  prohibited  admittance  by  many 
of  our  states,  whether  coming  from  our  neighbors  or  abroad. 
And  which  of  them  cannot  forbid  their  soil  from  being  pol- 
luted by  incendiaries  and  felons  from  any  quarter?" 

The  customs  tariff  system  grew  out  of  the  finan- 

happiness  and  human  hopes,  to  an  equality  with  the  lower 
orders   of  created   things. 

"But  I  shall  not  detain  the  meeting  further  with  these 
general  remarks.  I  came  to  it,  not  as  the  advocate  of  any 
particular  society  or  form  of  pledge,  but  for  the  single  object 
of  giving  my  own  testimony,  founded  on  my  own  observa- 
tion, to  the  beneficial  effects  of  these  societies.  I  now  pro- 
pose to  express  that  opinion,  in  the  form  of  a  resolution,  in 
which  I  hope  for  the  concurrence  of  the  meeting: 

"Resolved,  That  the  efforts  of  the  Temperance  Societies 
in  the  United  States  and  those  who  have  co-operated  with 
them,  have  had  the  manifest  effect  of  diminishing  crime;  of 
lessening  the  number  of  cases  of  imprisonment  for  small 
debts;  of  benefitting  the  condition  of  numerous  classes  of  peo- 
ple, by  improving  their  health,  and  increasing,  not  only  their 
industry  and  means  of  living,  but  also  their  self-respect  and 
love  of  character;  of  giving  new  impulse  to  the  domestic 
virtues  belonging  to  husbands,  fathers  and  children;  of 
awakening  fresh  attention  to  the  subject  of  education,  and  the 
moral  instruction  of  the  young;  and  of  advancing,  by  visible 
and  large  degrees,  the  general  cause  of  religion  and  morality 
in  the  community." 


38  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

cial  entanglements  in  which  the  Colonies  became  in- 
volved toward  the  close  of  the  Revolutionary  War. 
In  1783  the  United  States  found  itself  owing  about 
$42,000,000,  about  $8,000,000  of  which  arose  from  loans 
obtained  in  France  and  Holland.  Congress  was  prac- 
tically without  resources,  as  it  had  no  authority  to 
enact  a  customs  tariff  without  the  consent  of  each  of 
the  thirteen  states.  This  authority  the  states  were  loath 
to  give,  as  each  depended  largely  upon  a  customs 
tariff  for  its  own  support.  On  February  12  of  that 
year  Congress  declared  that  "the  establishment  of 
permanent  and  adequate  funds  on  taxes  or  duties, 
which  shall  operate  generally,  and  on  the  whole,  in 
just  proportion,  throughout  the  United  States,  is  in- 
dispensably necessary  toward  doing  complete  justice 
to  the  public  creditors,  for  restoring  public  credit,  and 
for  providing  for  the  future  exigencies  of  the  War.* 
But  it  was  much  easier  to  pass  resolutions  than 
to  carry  them  out.  Two  months  later,  Congress 
definitely  recommended  to  the  states  as  ''being  abso- 
lutely necessary,  to  the  restoration  of  public  credit, 
and  to  the  punctual  discharge  of  public  debts"  to  vest 
Congress  with  power  to  levy  certain  specified  duties 
on  spirits,  wines,  teas,  pepper,  sugar,  cocoa  and  coffee 
and  an  ad  valorem  duty  of  five  per  cent  on  all  other 
imported  goods.  To  urge  the  states  to  adopt  this 
recommendation,  a  committee  composed  of  Alexander 

*  Pitkin,  in  his  Civil  and  Political  History  of  the  United 
States,  Vol.  II,  gives  an  excellent  resume  of  the  troubles  of 
this  period. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  39 

Hamilton,  James  Madison  and  Oliver  Ellsworth  was 
appointed  to  draft  an  address  and  appeal  to  the  states 
urging  their  endorsement.  This  was  followed  by  an 
urgent  address  advocating  the  measure  prepared  by- 
General  Washington  himself,  written  on  June  8,  in 
which  he  said  that  *'no  real  friend  to  the  honor  and 
independency  of  America  can  hesitate  a  single  moment 
respecting  the  propriety  of  complying  with  the  just 
and  reasonable  measure  proposed." 

In  spite  of  all  this  pressure,  it  was  found  impos- 
sible for  the  states  to  agree  upon  all  the  features  of  the 
proposal.  The  interest  on  the  foreign  loans  was  be- 
ing paid  out  of  the  loans  themselves.  The  domestic 
debts  were  wholly  unprovided  for  and  depreciated  in 
value  to  ten  cents  on  the  dollar.  This  gloomy  situa- 
tion provoked  the  agitation  which  led  to  the  adoption 
of  the  Constitution  in  1789.  This  discussion  for  the 
constitution,  led  by  a  coterie  of  writers,  chiefly 
Alexander  Hamilton,  James  Madison,  and  John  Jay, 
was  conducted  by  means  of  a  series  of  essays  first 
published  in  the  newspapers,  addressed  **To  the 
People  of  New  York,"  and  finally  in  pamphlet  and 
book  form  under  the  title,  *'The  Federalist."*  In 
these  essays,  the  pressing  need  of  a  customs  duty  for 
Federal  purposes  was  kept  well  to  the  front,  par- 
ticularly a  duty  on  ardent  spirits,  with  occasional 
references  to  the  good  effect  that  such  a  law  would 

*  This  collection  of  essays,  with  frequent  revisions, 
passed  through  twenty-four  known  editions,  the  last  being 
published  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.  in  1864. 


40  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

have  in  reducing  the  consumption  of  liquor.     In  one 
of  these  letters,*  Mr.  Hamilton  declared : 

"The  single  article  of  ardent  spirits,  under  Federal  regu- 
lation, might  be  made  to  furnish  a  considerable  revenue. 
Upon  a  ratio  to  the  importation  into  this  state  (New  York), 
the  whole  quantity  imported  into  the  United  States,  Which  at 
a  shilling  a  gallon,  would  produce  two  hundred  thousand 
pounds.  That  article  would  well  bear  this  duty;  and  it  would 
tend  to  diminish  the  consumption  of  it.  Such  an  effect  would 
be  equally  favorable  to  agriculture,  to  the  economy,  to  the 
morals,  and  to  the  health  of  the  society.  There  is,  perhaps, 
nothing  so  much  the  subject  of  national  extravagance  as  these 
spirits." 

Inasmuch  as  it  was  the  clamor  for  a  uniform 
customs  duty  and  an  adequate  financial  plan  that  led 
the  way  to  the  adoption  of  the  constitution,  the  pro- 
posed customs  duty  was  the  first  thing  considered. 
Immediately  after  the  oath  of  office  had  been  adminis- 
tered to  the  members  of  the  House  of  Representatives 
on  April  8,  I789,t  James  Madison  oflfered  a  resolution 
declaring  for  a  duty  on  rum,  other  spirituous  liquors, 
wines,  molasses,  tea,  pepper,  sugar,  cocoa,  and  coffee 
and  an  ad  valorem  duty  on  other  imports. 

In  the  debates  which  followed,  the  hope  was  fre- 
quently expressed  that  the  law  would  have  the  eflfect 

*     Letter  to  The  New  York  Packet,  Nov.  27,  1787. 

t  Congress  was  called  to  meet  on  March  4,  but  a  quorum 
was  not  obtained  until  April  i,  and  the  first  week  was  used  up 
in  effecting  an  organization,  adopting  rules,  etc.  The  record 
of  the  discussions  relating  to  the  adoption  of  this  first  cus- 
toms tariff  may  be  found  in  Gales'  Debates  in  Congress,  Vol. 
I,  pp.  107  et  seq. 

0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  41 

of  reducing  the  consumption  of  spirits  and  encourag- 
ing the  consumption  of  beer  as  a  substitute,  the  latter 
being  a  milder  beverage.  Mr.  Madison,  the  author  of 
the  resolution,  voiced  the  general  sentiment  in  saying, 
"I  would  tax  this  article  [spirits]  with  as  high  a  duty 
as  can  be  collected,  and  I  am  sure  if  we  judge  from 
what  we  have  heard  and  seen  in  the  several  parts  of 
the  Union,  that  it  is  the  sense  of  the  people  of  America 
that  this  article  should  have  a  duty  imposed  upon  it 
weighty  indeed."* 

Thomas  Fitzsimmons,  member  from  Pennsyl- 
vania, observed  :t 

"It  will  be  readily  granted  me,  that  there  is  no  object 
from  which  we  can  collect  revenue,  more  proper  to  be  sub- 
jected to  a  high  duty,  than  ardent  spirits  of  every  kind;  if 
we  could  lay  the  duty  so  high  as  to  lessen  the  consumption  in 
any  great  degree,  the  better.  As  the  gentleman  has  just  ob- 
served, it  is  not  an  article  of  necessity,  but  of  luxury,  and  a 
luxury  of  the  most  pernicious  kind.  It  may  be  observed,  that 
lessening  the  consumption  is  not  the  object  which  the  com- 
mittee has  in  view;  but  surely,  from  the  considerations  I  have 
mentioned,  it  is  an  article  for  us  to  draw  all  possible  reve- 
nue from." 

*T  wish  to  lay  as  large  a  sum  on  this  article  as 
good  policy  may  deem  expedient ;  it  is  an  article  of 
great  consumption,  and  though  it  cannot  be  reckoned 
a  necessity  of  life,  yet  it  is  in  such  general  use  that  it 
may  be  expected  to  pay  a  very  considerable  sum  into 
your  treasury,  when  others  may  not  with   so  much 

♦     Debates  in  Congress,  Vol.  I,  p.  129. 
t     Ibid. 


42  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

certainty  be  relied  upon,"  urged  John   Lawrence,  of 
New  York. 

Fisher  Ames,  of  Massachusetts,  opposed  a  very 
heavy  tax  on  rum  because  it  would  inflict  upon  naviga- 
tion and  fishery  a  "deadly  wound."  "If  the  manufac- 
turers of  the  country's  rum  are  to  be  devoted  to  certain 
ruin,  to  mend  the  morals  of  others,  let  them  be  ad- 
monished that  they  prepare  themselves  for  the  event ; 
but  in  the  way  we  are  about  to  take,  destruction 
comes  on  a  sudden,  they  have  not  time  to  seek  refuge 
in  any  other  employment  whatsoever,"  he  declared. 
Still  Mr.  Ames  had  no  good  word  in  defense  of  the 
use  of  spirits.     On  the  contrary,  he  said : 

"I  would  concur  in  any  measure  calculated  to  extermi- 
nate the  poison  covered  under  the  form  of  ardent  spirits, 
from  our  country;  but  it  should  be  without  violence.  I  ap- 
prove as  much  as  any  gentleman  the  introduction  of  malt 
liquors,  believing  them  not  so  pernicious  as  the  one  in  com- 
mon use;  but  before  we  restrain  ourselves  to  the  use  of  them, 
we  ought  to  be  certain  that  we  have  malt  and  hops,  as 
well  as  brew-houses  for  the  manufacture."* 

Later  in  the  debate,  April  28,  Mr.  Ames  further 
emphasized  his  position,  saying: 

"The  custom  and  fashion  of  the  times  countenance  the 
consumption  of  West  India  rum.  I  consider  it  good  policy  to 
avail  ourselves  of  this  means  to  procure  a  revenue;  but  I 
treat  as  idle  the  visionary  notion  of  reforming  the  morals  of 
the  people  by  a  duty  on  molasses.  We  are  not  to  consider 
ourselves,  while  here,  as  at  church  or  school,  to  listen  to  the 
harangues  of  speculative  piety;  we  are  to  talk  of  the  political 
interests  committed  to  our  charge.    When  we  take  up  the  sub- 


Id.  p.   I3Q. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  43 

ject  of  morality,  let  our  system  look  toward  that  object  and 
not  confound  itself  with  revenue  and  protection  of  manufac- 
tures." * 

Elbridge  Gerry,  also  from  Massachusetts,  sav- 
agely attacked  the  proposals  to  tax  the  importation  of 
molasses  from  which  his  constituents  distilled  their 
rum.  **If  we  do  not  import  molasses,"  he  declared, 
"we  cannot  carry  on  our  distilleries  nor  vend  our  fish." 
He  urged  that  taxing  molasses  would  operate  "to 
encourage  the  importation  of  rum  from  the  West 
Indies,  and  destroy  our  own  distilleries."  Like  Mr. 
Ames,  he  had  no  good  words  for  the  use  of  ardent 
spirits  as  a  beverage.    He  said : 

"It  has  been  frequently  observed,  that  rum  is  injurious  to 
the  morals  of  the  people;  if  I  could  have  my  wish,  it  would 
not  be  to  diminish,  but  to  annihilate  the  use  of  it,  both  for- 
eign and  domestic,  within  the  United  States."  f 

The  bill  was  duly  passed  and  approved  by  Presi- 
dent Washington,  July  4,  1789,  being  the  second  act 
to  be  placed  upon  the  statute  book  of  the  United 
States  under  the  Constitution.  It  provided  the  follow- 
ing duty  upon  imported  liquors  and  malt: 

Ale,  Porter  and  Beer:  In  bottles,  per  dozen,  20  cents;  Other- 
wise per  gallon,  5  cents. 

Spirits:  Jamaica  proof,  per  gallon,  10  cents;  All  other,  per 
gallon,  8  cents. 

Wines:  Madeira,  per  gallon,  18  cents;  all  others  (bottles  or 
cases),  10  cents;  All  others  (otherwise),  per  gallon, 
10  cents. 

Malt:     per  bushel,  ten  cents. 


*     Id.  p.  232. 
t     Ibid.  p.  223. 


44  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Up  to  1816,  party  lines  were  not  closely  drawn  in 
tariff  discussions.  But  in  that  year,  James  Monroe 
became  President  on  a  low  tariff  proposal,  and,  from 
that  time,  the  Federalist  party,  with  its  successors, 
the  Whig  and  Republican  parties,  have  generally 
espoused  the  protective  tariff  idea,  while  the  opposi- 
tion has  usually  championed  low  tariff  or  ''tariff  for 
revenue  only"  ideas. 

Since  1816  the  liquor  question  has  been  almost 
wholly  lost  sight  of  in  tariff  debates,  and  public 
policy  has  alternated  between  the  contending  theories. 
The  protectionists  came  into  power  with  a  high  tariff 
in  1824,  which  was  raised  still  higher  in  1828.  The 
low  tariff  Democrats,  under  the  leadership  of  John  C. 
Calhoun,  savagely  attacked  this  law,  and  the  "Com- 
promise Tariff"  of  1833  resulted.  The  panic  of  1837 
occurred,  and  of  course  was  attributed  to  the  Act  of 
1833.  This  resulted  in  a  Whig  victory  and  another 
protective  tariff  in  1842.  The  new  tariff  did  not  seem 
to  operate  satisfactorily,  and  the  "Free  Trade  Tariff"^ 
of  1846  followed.  Two  years  later  gold  was  dis- 
covered in  California.  Then  France  and  England 
grappled  Russia  by  the  throat  on  the  shore  of  the 
Black  Sea,  which  again  complicated  the  world's 
finances.  The  panic  of  1857  followed  the  peace  of 
1856.  This  panic  naturally  caused  another  downfall 
of  "free  trade,"  and  the  election  of  Abraham  Lincoln, 
which  was  followed  by  the  enactment  of  the  "Morrill 
Tariff  Act."  Since  then  have  come  "Horizontal  Bill"" 
Morrison,    John    Sherman,    William    McKinley    with 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  45 

ultra  protection  ideas,  James  G.  Blaine  with  his  reci- 
procity schemes,  and  Nelson  Dingley  with  his  bill 
which  so  much  resembled  the  one  enacted  by  the 
Cleveland  Democrats  that  they  could  scarcely  be  dis- 
tinguished; all  these  have  crossed  the  tempestuous 
arena  of  tariff  discussion.  Jn  all  of  these  proposals,  the 
liquor  traffic  has  been  universally  recognized  as  a  fit 
subject  for  high  tariff  duties.  Even  the  champions  of 
low  tariff  were  generally  willing  to  permit  as  heavy  a 
duty  on  liquors  as  possible  without  scandalizing  their 
political  creed. 

The  extent  to  which  the  Government  depends  on 
the  customs  revenue  from  the  liquor  traffic  to  maintain 
its  finances  is  grossly  exaggerated  in  the  popular 
mind.  The  accompanying  table  shows  the  total  cus- 
toms revenue  of  the  United  States  since  the  year  1866, 
and  the  amount  each  year  which  accrued  out  of  the 
customs  duties  on  imported  liquors.  It  appears  that 
the  average  total  annual  customs  receipts  per  capita 
for  this  period  amount  to  $3.14,  while  the  annual  per 
capita  receipts  from  the  customs  duty  on  liquors  for 
the  same  period  amount  to  but  fourteen  cents. 


46 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


TOTAL  CUSTOMS  RECEIPTS  AND  CUSTOMS 
FROM  LIQUORS  OF  THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Fiscal 

Total    Customs 
Receipts. 

Receipts. 
Per  Capita. 

Customs  Receipts  from  Liquors 

Year. 

Receipts. 

Per 

>  Capita. 

1867 

$176,417,811 

4.6s 

$  7,211,242 

.19 

1868 

164,464,600 

4.34 

6,548,042 

.17 

1869 

180,048,427 

4.68 

7,459,087 

.19 

1870 

194,538,374 

4.96 

8,338,871 

.21 

1871 

206,270,408 

5-12 

8,666,400 

.21 

1872 

216,370,287 

S.23 

9,225,323 

•  24 

1873 

188,089,523 

4.44 

9,380,773 

.22 

1874 

163,103,834 

3.75 

8,556,113 

.21 

1875 

157,167,722 

3-51 

7,509,462 

.21 

1876 

148,071,985 

3-22 

6,487,770 

.16 

1877 

130,956,493 

2.77 

5,956,023 

.12 

1878 

130,170,680 

2.67 

5,286,112 

.11 

1879 

137,250,048 

2.73 

5,462,951 

.1 1 

1880 

186,522,065 

3.64 

6,297,077 

.09 

1881 

198,159,676 

3.78 

6,812,827 

.12 

1882 

220,410,730 

4.12 

7,183,653 

.13     - 

1883 

214,706,497 

3.92 

9,253,341 

.14 

1884 

195,067,490 

3-47 

6,263,887 

.12 

'III 

181,471,939 

3-17 

7,156,564 

.12 

1886 

192,905,023 

3-30 

7,194,147 

•IS 

1887 

217,286,893 

3.65 

7,402,243 

.12 

1888 

219,091,174 

3.60 

7,663,244 

.12 

1889 

223,832,742 

3.60 

7,786,400 

.12 

1890 

229,668,585 

3.62 

8,518,081 

.13 

1891 

219,522,205 

3.40 

9,421,258 

•15 

1892 

177,452,964 

2.68 

8,840,501 

•  13 

1893 

203,355,017 

3.00 

9,256,617 

.13 

1894 

131,818,531 

1.92 

6,930,244 

.10 

1895 

152,158,617 

2.17 

6,929,704 

.10 

1896 

160,021,752 

2.23 

6,736,063 

.10 

1897 

176,554.127 

2.41 

8,005,277 

.11 

1898 

149,575,062 

1.99 

5,742,240 

.08 

1899 

206,128,482 

2,72 

7,116,166 

.10 

1900 

233,164,471 

3.01 

8,427,410 

.1 1 

1901 

238,585,456 

3.01 

9,121,236 

.12 

1902 

254,444,708 

3.18 

10,148,514 

.12 

1903 

284,479,582 

3.49 

11,210,498 

•  14 

1904 

261,274,565 

3.16 

11,647,375 

•14 

1905 

261,798,857 

3-11 

12,097,799 

•15 

1906 

300,251,878 

3-49 

13,528,213 

•  15 

1907 

332,233,363 

3.84 

15,797,814 

.18 

1908 

286,113,130 

3-24 

14,696,334 

.16 

1909 

300,711,934 

3.33 

15,650,113 

.17 

1910 

333,683,445 

1          3.69 

1            17,572,334 

.19 

From  the  above  table  it  appears  that  the  amount  of 
revenue  derived   from   the   importation   of  liquors   is 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  47 

trivial,  indeed,  as  compared  with  the  total  receipts  from 
the  customs.  Should  the  importation  of  liquors  be  en- 
tirely discontinued,  there  would  be  little  appreciable 
effect,  so  far  as  the  income  from  the  same  is  con- 
cerned, the  amount  involved  being  only  fifteen  or  six- 
teen cents  per  capita,  annually. 

The  rate  of  customs  duty  has  increased  enor- 
mously from  the  beginning,  the  present  rate  on  dis- 
tilled spirits  being  about  thirty  times  the  rate  pro- 
vided in  the  Revenue  Act  of  1789.  In  the  same  period 
the  customs  revenue  derived  from  liquors  has  grown 
to  about  thirty-five  times  the  amount  collected  thereon 
the  first  year.  In  the  same  period,  the  population  of  the 
nation  has  increased  to  only  about  twenty  times  that 
of  1790.  This  means  that  the  imports  of  intoxicating 
liquors  have  more  than  kept  pace  with  the  develop- 
ment of  the  country,  in  spite  of  the  enormous  duties 
exacted  from  it. 

It  further  appears  that  the  levying  of  an  internal 
revenue  tax  has  had  little  or  no  eflfect  upon  the  im- 
ports of  strong  drink.  During  the  period  from  1789 
up  to  the  Civil  War,  two  internal  revenue  systems 
were  established  and  abandoned.  During  the  life  of 
each  system  the  importation  of  these  same  liquors 
thrived  as  though  no  such  burden  had  been  placed  on 
the  internal  traflfic.  The  accompanying  table  shows 
the  total  duty  collected  on  imported  liquors,  and  the 
average  rate  of  duty  thereon  for  each  year  from  1789 
to  1827.  The  years  in  which  an  excise  was  levied  are 
marked  with  a  star: 


48 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


CUSTOMS  DUTY  ON  DISTILLED  SPIRITS. « 

Average 

Duty.          1!        Year. 

Average 

1 

Year. 

Per  Cent 

Per  Cent 

Duty. 

of   Duty. 

of  Duty. 

1       

1790 

8.4 

$    346,234 

1809 

28.6 

$1,327,059 

1791 

13.6 

492,122 

1810 

28.3 

1,272,063 

1792* 

21.4 

979.547 

1811 

27.6 

950,604 

1793* 

29.0 

995,266 

1812 

37.0 

1,520,482 

1794 

29.0 

1,580,247 

1813 

60.1 

611,914 

1795* 

28.5 

1,433.276 

1814* 

57.3 

327,780 

1796* 

28.6 

1,605,882 

i8i5» 

58.4 

3,281,799 

1797* 

27.6 

1,881,330 

1816* 

47-3 

2.340,014 

1798* 

29.1 

1,354,271 

1817* 

43-8 

1,775,548 

1799* 

28.1 

2,053,758 

1818 

43.7 

2,646,187 

i8oo» 

29.9 

1,434.276 

1819 

43.8 

1,959.125 

i8oi» 

2^.2 

2,221,064 

1820 

44.0 

1,728,566 

1802 

29.2 

2,258,496 

1821 

43.7 

1,679,319 

1803 

29.0 

2,594,259 

1822 

40.5 

2,040,413 

1804 

29.2 

3,061,207 

1823 

44.7 

1,655,326 

180S 

29.2 

2,232,902 

'         1824 

44-4 

2,348,075 

1806 

29.3 

3,074,398 

1825 

48.8 

1,802,766 

1807 

29.4 

2,656,047 

i         1826 

43-6 

1,532,268 

1808 

28.8 

1,333,474 

i 

a.  State  Papers,  20th  Congress,   ist  Session,  Doc.  No.    168. 
*    Excise  years. 

The  above  record  irresistibly  leads  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  levying  of  these  two  excise  systems 
upon  the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors  had  no  appreci- 
able effect  upon  the  importation  of  the  same.  It  may 
have  held  in  check  somewhat  the  importation,  and 
thus  stimulated  the  internal  traffic.  In  theory,  this  is 
usually  held  to  be  the  result  of  such  a  course,  but  it  is 
impossible  to  verify  this  theory  from  the  statistical 
record  of  the  period  under  observation.  Whatever  the 
result  ought  to  have  been  from  the  reasoning  of  the 
economist,  the  facts  remain  that  during  the  periods  in 
which  the  war  excise  on  liquors  was  collected  under 
the  Acts  of  1794  and  1813,  the  rate  of  customs  duty  on 
liquors  was  not  materially  changed,  and  in  each  case 
the  importations  continued  to  grow  at  substantially 
the  same  rate  as  during  the  few  years  prior  to  each 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  49 

excise  tariff  and  also  during  the  few  years  subsequent 
thereto.  According  to  rules  of  the  economist,  the 
statistics  should  have  shown  that  the  importation  of 
these  liquors  suffered  during  the  excise  periods,  but 
it  did  not.  It  is  only  another  item  of  evidence,  that 
has  been  duplicated  so  repeatedly  since  that  it  has 
become  almost  an  axiom,  that  a  burden  of  taxation 
levied  upon  vice  does  not  have  the  same  effect  as  when 
a  similar  burden  is  levied  upon  a  legitimate  article  of 
commerce.  In  our  record  of  a  century  and  a  quarter 
as  a  nation,  it  would  be  a  most  difficult  matter  to 
point  to  any  burden  of  taxation  of  any  kind,  impost, 
excise  or  state  or  local  license  that  affected,  in  any 
considerable  degree,  the  consumption  of  intoxicating 
drinks.  The  restriction  of  hours  of  sale,  accompany- 
ing high  license  measures,  has  undoubtedly  influenced 
the  consumption  of  these  intoxicants,  but  it  has  never 
•been  shown  that  taxation  itself  of  any  variety  has 
had  such  result  in  any  marked  degree. 

From  the  establishment  of  the  Constitution  in 
1789,  there  have  been  passed  141  different  Tariff  Acts, 
besides  numerous  joint  resolutions  and  proclamations 
relating  to  reciprocity  and  treaty  arrangements.  The 
specific  duties  on  liquor  have  changed  from  time  to 
time,  and  sometimes  an  ad  valorem  duty  was  collected, 
in  addition  to  the  specific  charges.  The  following 
tabulation  gives  all  the  specific  charges  on  liquor  im- 
ports under  each  of  these  various  acts.  In  a  few 
cases,  where  there  was  no  specific  duty  charged,  the 
ad  valorem  duty  is  indicated  in  its  place : 


50 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


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52 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


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AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 


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54  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


Internal  Revenue. 


CHAPTER  HI. 

The  Internal  Revenue  of  the  United  States,  or 
"excise,"  as  the  system  is  usually  termed  in  England, 
is  an  inheritance  from  European  countries.  In 
England  the  system  is  about  250  years  old,  the  first 
British  excise  law*  having  been  enacted  by  the  Long 
Parliament  in  1643.  I"  France  the  system  originated 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  during  the  reconstruction  of 
the  monarchy  after  the  English  wars.  The  excise  has 
since  become  the  settled  policy  of  most  European  na- 
tions as  a  prominent  part  of  their  fiscal  system.  While 
the  excise  has  become,  in  general,  the  settled  policy  of 
the  European  nations,  it  has  been  resorted  to  in  Amer- 
ica only  in  times  of  unusual  financial  need,  and,  ex- 
cepting the  War  Revenue  tax  of  1862,  such  a  tax  has 
always  been  promptly  repealed  as  soon  as  the  pres- 
sure which  called  it  into  existence  had  abated. 

Violent  hatred  of  anything  like  internal  or  direct 
taxation  was  a  marked  characteristic  of  the  American 
Colonies.  This  feeling  was  accentuated  by  the  at- 
tempts of  King  George's  government  to  force  the 
policy  upon  the  colonists  in  a  most  oflfensive  manner. 

*     Sinclair:     History  of  the  Revenue,  Vol.  I,  pp.  46,  278. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  55 

"I  will  never  burn  my  fingers  with  an  American  stamp 
tax,"  said  William  Pitt.  The  famous  Stamp  Act  of 
March  2"],  1765,  which  first  aroused  the  revolutionary 
sentiment  among  the  Colonists,  contained  provisions 
requiring  stamps  on  liquor  licenses.*  This  same  hos- 
tility came  to  the  surface  in  the  controversy  over  the 
tax  levied  by  Parliament  on  tea  imported  into  the 
Colonies  of  America.  While  this  item  was  strictly 
an  import  tax,  it  was  looked  upon  by  the  Colonists  as 
a  part  of  an  excise  system,  and  especially  onerous  be- 
cause levied  without  their  consent.  The  widespread 
resentment  of  the  people  against  this  tax  found  ex- 
pression in  the  agreement  entered  into  by  the  Virginia 
Delegates,  assembled  at  Williamsburg,  August  i,  1774, 
which  contained  the  following  item : 

"Art.  3d.     Considering  the  article  of  tea  as  the  detestable 

*  The  following  is  the  text  of  these  sections:  "18.  For 
every  skin  or  piece  of  vellum  or  parchment,  or  sheet  or  piece 
of  paper,  on  which  shall  be  engrossed,  written,  or  printed  any 
license  for  retailing  spirituous  liquors,  to  be  granted  to  any 
person  who  shall  take  out  the  same  within  the  said  colonies 
and  plantations,  a  stamp  duty  of  twenty  shillings. 

"19.  For  every  skin  or  piece  of  vellum  or  parchment,  or 
sheet  or  piece  of  paper,  on  which  shall  be  engrossed,  written 
or  printed  any  license  for  retailing  of  wine,  to  be  granted  to 
any  person  who  shall  not  take  out  a  license  for  retailing  of 
spirituous  liquors,  within  the  said  colonies  and  plantations, 
a  stamp  duty  of  four  pounds. 

"20.  For  every  skin  or  piece  of  vellum  or  parchment,  or 
sheet  or  piece  of  paper,  on  which  shall  be  engrossed,  written, 
or  printed  any  license  for  retailing  spirituous  liquors  within 


56  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

instrument  which  laid  the  foundation  of  the  present  suflfer- 
ings  of  our  distressed  friends  in  the  town  of  Boston,  we  view 
it  with  horror: — and  therefore,  Resolved,  That  we  will  not, 
from  this  day,  import  tea,  of  any  kind  whatever;  nor  will  we 
use  it,  nor  suffer  such  of  it  as  may  now  be  on  hand  to  be 
used,  in  any  of  our  families." 

This  agreement  spread  like  wild  fire  throughout 
the  colonies,  and  a  period  of  abstinence  from  tea  was 
generally  observed.  This  same  hostility  to  an  internal 
tax  was  felt,  even  when  the  colonies  enacted  such 
legislation  in  their  own  behalf.  On  September  26, 
1756,  the  colony  of  Pennsylvania  enacted  an  excise 
law,  levying  a  tax  on  retailers  of  foreign  spirits.  Great 
difficulty  was  experienced  in  collecting  the  excise, 
which  was  increased  in  1772  (Act  of  March  2),  when 
the  excise  was  extended  to  rum,  brandy  and  domestic 
spirits.  The  Act  was  amended  in  1779,  but  still  it 
proved  to  be  unsatisfactory,  and  was  soon  repealed.* 
About  the  same  time,  New  Jersey  attempted  to  collect 
an  excise,  but  failed. 

This  political  feeling  against  an  internal  revenue 
tax  was  intensified  by  the  impoverished  condition  in 
which  the  young  nation  found  itself  at  the  close  of  the 
Revolution.  War  had  scattered  and  destroyed  the  in- 
dustries of  the  country  to  such  an  extent  that  little 
was  left  available  for  taxation. 

In  his  letters  (later  pamphlet  editions  known  as 
The  Federalist)  to  the  newspapers,  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton had  incidentally  defended  the  policy  of  an  internal 


*     Pennsylvania  Archives,  2d  Series.  Vol.  IV.  p.  30. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  57 

tax,  but  astutely  refrained  from  then  pressing  the 
proposal  against  the  prejudices  of  the  people.  But 
after  the  establishment  of  the  Constitution  and  the 
passage  of  the  Customs  Tariff  Act  of  1789,  the  gov- 
ernment still  felt  pressing  need  of  further  revenues. 
As  the  depreciated  debt  of  the  government  was  held 
largely  at  home,  the  people  became  ready  to  listen  to 
new  proposals  of  taxation.  The  initial  proposal,  how- 
ever, met  with  a  hostile  reception.  On  December  29, 
1790,  Robert  Morris  introduced  into  the  Senate  a 
memorial  from  the  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons 
of  Philadelphia  praying  that  ''such  heavy  duties  may 
be  imposed  upon  all  distilled  spirits  as  shall  be  more 
effectual  to  restrain  their  intemperate  use."  On  the 
following  day,  George  Clymer  introduced  into  the 
House  the  same  memorial.*  Notwithstanding  that  the 
proposal  was  made  solely  for  moral  purposes,  the 
memorial  excited  the  wrath  of  the  ultra  opponents  of 
excise.  The  fiery  General  James  Jackson  referred  to 
the  memorialists,  on  the  floor  of  the  House,  as  "those 
gentlemen  of  the  squirt,"  who  "attempted  to  squirt 
morality  and  instruction  into  the  minds  of  members."f 
The  time  quickly  came,  however,  for  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton, Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  to  throw  the  weight  of 
his  powerful  influence  directly  upon  an  excise  pro- 
posal. On  March  5,  1792,  Hamilton  sent  to  the  House 
an  elaborate  argument  in  favor  of  an  excise  tax  upon 


*     Annals  of  Congress,  Vol,  II,  p%    1740,  1838. 
t     Ibid,  p.  179T. 


58  THE    FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

ardent  spirits*  **There  can  surely  be  nothing  in  the 
nature  of  an  internal  duty  on  a  consumable  commodity 
more  incompatible  with  liberty  than  that  of  an  ex- 
ternal duty  on  a  like  commodity,"  he  argued.  Hamil- 
ton's report  was  followed,  on  April  27.  by  the  passage 
of  a  resolution  by  the  House  of  Representatives  look- 
ing to  an  internal  tax  on  distilled  spirits.  A  commit- 
tee was  appointed,  headed  by  Thomas  Fitzsimmons, 
to  draft  a  bill.  Such  a  bill,  "to  discourage  the  exces- 
sive use  of  those  [ardent]  spirits,  and  promote  agri- 
culture, to  provide  for  the  support  of  the  public  credit, 
and  for  the  common  defense  and  general  welfare," 
was  reported  on  May  5,  but  suffered  defeat  on  June  14, 
by  a  vote  of  26  to  13.  Another  attempt,  in  the  follow- 
ing year,  was  successful,  and  the  first  internal  revenue 
act  of  the  United  Statesf  was  approved  March  3,  1791. 
It  levied  the  following  excise  duties  on  all  spirits  dis- 
tilled after  June  30,  from  molasses,  sugar,  or  other 
foreign  materials : J 

*  American  State  Papers,  Vol.  I,  p.  151.  This  communi- 
cation is  one  of  the  most  scholarly  and  masterful  defenses  of 
internal  excise  ever  written. 

t  This  law  was  probably  drafted  by  Alexander  Hamil- 
ton himself.  Vide  Fifth  Special  Report,  United  States  Rev- 
enue  Commission,   Feb.,   1886. 

t  Seybert,  Statistical  Annals  of  the  United  States,  p. 
455.  All  computations  from  the  beginning  were  made  by 
Dycas'   Hydrometer.  , 


AND  THE   LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  59 

Class.  Per  gallon. 

More  than  10  per  cent  below  proof 11  cents 

From  5  to  10  per  cent  below  proof 12  cents 

Proof  and  not  more  than  5  below  proof 13  cents 

Above  proof  and  not  over  20 15  cents 

From  20  to  40  above  proof 20  cents 

More  than  40  above 30  cents 

The  duty  on  spirits  distilled  from  domestic  ma- 
terials was : 

Class.  Per  gallon. 

More  than  10  per  cent  below  proof 9  cents 

From  5  to  10  per  cent  below  proof 10  cents 

Proof  and  not  more  than  5  below  proof 11  cents 

Above  proof  and  not  more  than  20 13  cents 

From  20  to  40  above  proof 17  cents 

More  than  40  above 25  cents 

This  act  was  temporary,  and  gave  way  to  the 
permanent  law  approved  May  8,  1792,  which  reduced 
somewhat  the  rates  given  above,  but  also  levied  a 
capacity  tax  on  stills,  and  provided  a  drawback  on 
spirits  imported. 

Two  more  years  of  agitation  prepared  the  people 
for  a  license  tax  on  retailers  of  wines  and  spirits,  the 
Act  of  June  5,  1794,  "laying  a  duty  on  licenses  for 
selling  wines  and  foreign  distilled  spirituous  liquors 
by  retail."  Under  this  Act,  every  person  who  sold 
wines,  to  be  sent  out  of  the  house,  in  less  quantities 
than  30  gallons,  except  in  the  original  cask,  case,  box 
or  package,  was  declared  to  be  a  retail  dealer ;  and 
every  person  who  sold  foreign  distilled  spirits  in  the 
manner  aforesaid,  in  less  quantities  than  20  gallons, 
was  also  a  retail  dealer.     A  license  fee  of  $5  was  re- 


6o  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

quiried  for  each  class  of  license,  even  though  both  were 
held  b}^  the  same  person.  The  law  was  to  continue  in 
force  from  September  30,  1794,  to  March  5,  1801,  ex- 
piring by  its  own  limitation. 

The  passage  of  this  legislation  was  followed  by 
acute  problems  of  enforcement.  In  many  remote  sec- 
tions of  Pennsylvania,  North  Carolina  and  Virginia, 
the  farmers  found  it  more  convenient,  owing  to  lack 
of  transportation  faciHties,  to  distill  their  grain  and 
market  the  whisky,  than  to  transport  the  grain  itself. 
These  people  were  loath  to  pay  the  hated  excise  tax, 
and  a  spirit  of  insurrection  became  rife  in  several 
states.  In  western  Pennsylvania  the  opposition  took 
the  form  of  general  and  open  rebellion  against  pay- 
ment. This  spirit  was  somewhat  fomented  and  en- 
couraged by  the  hostile  action  of  the  state  legislature 
itself.  On  June  22,  1791,  while  the  original  tax  pro- 
posal was  being  agitated,  the  Pennsylvania  legislature 
passed  the  following: 

"Resolved,  That  any  proceeding  on  the  part  of  the 
United  States,  tending  to  the  collection  of  revenue  by  means 
of  excise,  established  on  principles  subversive  of  peace,  liberty 
and  the  rights  of  the  citizens,  ought  to  attract  the  attention 
of  this  House. 

"Resolved,  That  no  public  urgency  within  the  knowledge 
or  contemplation  of  this  House,  can,  in  their  opinion,  warrant 
the  adoption  of  any  species  of  taxation  which  shall  violate 
those  rights  which  are  the  basis  of  our  government,  and 
which  would  exhibit  the  singular  spectacle  of  a  nation  reso- 
lutely oppressing  the  oppressed  in  order  to  enslave  itself. 

"Resolved,  That  these  sentiments  be  communicated  to  the 
Senators  representing  the  state  of  Pennsylvania  in  the  Senate 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  6i 

of  the  United  States,  with  a  hope  that  they  will  oppose  every 
part  of  the  excise  bill  now  before  Congress,  which' shall  miti- 
gate against  the  rights  and  liberties  of  the  people." 

The  storm  center  of  the  insurrection  was  in  the 
four  counties  west  of  the  Alleghany  mountains,  a 
section  settled  largely  by  Scotch  Presbyterians.  Col- 
lector after  collector  was  appointed  by  the  Treasury 
Department,  but  they  couldn't  collect.  Finally,  in 
1793,  an  adventuresome  ex-saloonkeeper  from  Phila- 
delphia, William  Graham,*  was  appointed  "collector 
general"  of  the  troubled  district.  The  angry  people 
cut  off  the  tail  of  Graham's  horse,  set  fire  to  his  wig. 
put  coals  in  his  boots,  and  finally  besieged  him  in  a 
saloon,  where'  they  captured  him  and  shaved  his  hea'd, 
afterward  chasing  him  out  of  the  country  and  posting 
notices  offering  rewards  for  his  scalp.  A  justice  of 
the  peace  next  tried  and  failed  to  make  collections.  A 
man  named.  Hunter  then  made  several  seizures,  and 
instituted  seventy  suits  against  distillers,  which  were 
promptly  set  aside  by  the  court,  whereupon  Hunter 
gave  up. 

Numerous  outrages  were  committed.  Mails  were 
robbed,  buildings  burned,  and  finally  one  government 
officer  was  tarred  and  feathered,  the  local  militia  aiding 
in  the  proceedings.  Governor  Miffin  refused  to  call 
out  the  State  Militia,  and  finally  President  Washing- 
ton  called  on   the   Governors   of  the   states   of   New 

*  Graham  was  former  proprietor  of  the  "Black  Horse 
Tavern"  and  also  of  the  "King  of  Prussia,"  another  Philadel- 
phia saloon,  but  failed  in  business. 


62  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Jersey,  Maryland,  Virginia,  and  Pennsylvania  for 
15,000  men.  Command  of  the  forces  was  given  to 
General  Henry  Lee,  of  Virginia,  but  before  the  troops 
arrived  on  the  scene  the  'insurgents"  submitted,  and 
agreed  to  behave  themselves  and  pay  the  excise  taxes.* 
What  might  have  been  a  serious  complication  was 
thus  peacefully  settled,  but  not  until  the  Government 
had  expended  about  $1,500,000  in  war  preparations. 
Upon  the  submission  of  the  "insurgents,"   President 


*  Many  of  the  actors  in  this  ''Whisky  Rebellion"  found 
it  necessary  to  write  a  book  to  defend  themselves  and  attack 
somebody  else.  William  Findley,  an  Irishman  and  opponent 
of  Washington,  was  charged  with  instigating  the  trouble. 
He  wrote  a  book,  the  "History  of  the  Insurrection  in  the 
Western  Counties/'  (1796)  in  order  to  clear  himself  and  at- 
tack Hamilton.  Hugh  H.  Brackenridge,  who  was  arrested 
for  complicity  in  the  troubles,  but  was  never  prosecuted, 
wrote  his  "Incidents  of  the  Insurrection  in  the  Western  part 
of  Pennsylvania,"  (1795)  ^s  he  said,  "with  a  view  to  explain 
my  own  conduct  which  has  not  been  understood."  Fifty  years 
later,  descendants  of  these  actors  took  up  the  con- 
troversy. Nelville  B.  Craig,  whose  father  was  implicated 
as  a  revenue  inspector,  wrote  his  "History  of  Pittsburg" 
(1851),  in  which  he  scandalized  H.  H.  Brackenridge.  This 
drew  out  another  "History  of  the  Western  Insurrection," 
(1859),  this  time  by  H.  M.  Brackenridge,  to  defend  his  father 
and  roast  Craig.  Craig  responded  with  another  volume,  an 
"Exposure  of  a  Few  Statements  by  H.  M.  Brackenridge." 
To  this  day,  disputes,  charges,  and  counter-charges,  growing 
out  of  the  refusal  of  the  distillers  of  Western  Pennsylvania  to 
pay  their  taxes,  crop  out  regularly  in  the  newspapers  and 
debates  of  that  state. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  63 

Washington  promptly  issued  a  proclamation,*  dated 
July  10,  1795,  granting  a  general  amnesty  to  all  per- 
sons implicated  in  the  insurrection ;  and  the  difficulty 
subsided. 

The  trouble,  however,  had  its  political  result. 
Those  who  had  opposed  the  excise  became  popular 
with  the  former  insurgents.  *'The  excise  law  is  an 
infernal  one,"  declared  Thomas  Jefferson.f  The 
Whisky  Rebellion  was  a  symptom,  rather  than  the 
cause,  of  the  rising  political  tide  which  swept  the 
Federalist  party  from  power,  and  placed  Thomas  Jef- 
ferson in  the  President's  chair.  With  the  incoming 
of  Jefferson,  the  liquor  license  tax  expired  by  limita- 
tion. In  his  first  message  to  Congress  (Dec.  8,  1801), 
President  Jefferson  felicitated  that  body  upon  the 
satisfactory  financial  condition  of  the  Treasury,  and 
suggested  that  "there  is  now  reasonable  ground  of 
confidence  that  we  may  now  safely  dispense  with  all 
internal  taxes,  comprehending  excise,  stamps,  auctions, 
licenses,  carriages  and  refined  sugars,  to  which  postage 
may  be  added  to  facilitate  the  progress  of  information, 
and  that  the  remaining  sources  of  revenue  will  be  suf- 
ficient to  provide  for  the  support  of  the  government, 
to  pay  the  interest  on  the  public  debts,  and  to  dis- 
charge the  principals  within  shorter  periods  than  the 


*  For  the  text  of  this  proclamation,  see  Sparks:  Wash- 
ington, Vol.  XII,  p.  134,  or  Richardson:  Messages  and  Pa- 
pers of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  I,  p.  181. 

t  Letter  to  James  Madison,  Dec.  28,  1794:  Writings  of 
Thomas  Jefferson.  Washington  edition,  Vol  IV.  p.   112. 


64  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

laws  or  the  general  expectation  had  contemplated."* 
A  greater  tribute  could  hardly  have  been  paid  to  the 
administrative  genius  of  Hamilton,  though  the  mes- 
sage was  far  from  being  intended  as  such.  Twelve 
years  before,  he  had  taken  charge  of  the  nation's 
finances,  at  a  time  when  chaos  was  rampant,  a  con- 
suming war  in  progress,  with  Tories  undermining  and 
plotting  trouble,  and  the  value  of  the  government's 
obligations  standing  at  ten  cents  on  the  dollar.  In  a 
little  more  than  a  decade  Hamilton  had  brought  order 
out  of  the  wreckage,  and  created  a  condition  in  which, 
according  to  his  most  powerful  opponents,  it  was  pos- 
sible to  abolish  entirely  the  system  of  internal  taxa- 
tion. It  is  true  that  Mr.  Jefferson  was  bitterly  op- 
posed to  internal  tax,f  but  he  did  not  mention  this  as  a 
reason  for  abolishing  that  system  of  taxation.  A  couple 

*  Richardson:  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents, 
Vol.  I,  p.  328. 

T  In  his  later  years,  Jefferson  somewhat  modified  his 
hostility  to  an  internal  revenue.  In  a  letter  to  General  Sam- 
uel Smith,  dated  May  2,  1823,  he  explained: 

"Viewing  that  tax  as  a  system  of  excise,  I  was  once  glad 

to  see  it  fall  with  the  rest  of  the  system Considering  it 

only  as  a  fiscal  measure,  that  was  right.  But  the  prostration 
of  body  and  mind  which  the  cheapness  of  this  liquor  is 
spreading   through    the   mass   of   our   citizens,   now   calls   the 

attention  of  the  legislator  on  a  very  different  principle 

A  tax  on  whisky  is  to  discourage  its  consumption;  a  tax  on 
foreign  spirits  encourages  whisky  by  removing  its  rival 
from  competition.  The  price  and  present  duty  throw  foreign 
spirits  already  out  of  competition  with  whisky,  and  accord- 
ingly they  are  used  to  but  a  salutary  extent.  You  see  no 
persons  besotting  themselves  with  imported  spirits,  wines, 
liquors,  cordials,  etc.  Whisky  claims  itself  alone  the  ex 
elusive  office  of  sot-making." — Works  of  Thomas  Jefferson. 
Washington  edition,  Vol.  VII,  p.  285. 

0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 


65 


of  years  later,  Congress  acted  upon  Jefferson's  recom- 
mendation, and  the  internal  revenue  system  established 
by  Alexander  Hamilton  came  to  an  end. 

The  following  tabulation  shows  the  number  of 
retail  liquor  license  issues  of  each  class,  and  the 
amount  of  the  receipts  therefrom,  for  each  year  during 
the  life  of  the  Act : 


Year    Ending 

Number  Licenses. 

Revenue 

Sept.  30. 

Wine. 

Spirit. 

Therefrom. 

1796 
*i8oi 

4,177 
4,333 
4,005 
3,541 
3,450 
3,556 

8,592 
8,446 
8,959 
9,747 
9,591 
10,282 

$63,764 
63,862 
64,823 
66,434 
65,159 
69,174 

•Year  ending  Dec.   31. 

The  above  licenses  for  the  first  year  (Oct.  i,  1795, 
to  Sept.  30,  1796)  were  divided  among  the  states  as 
follows  :* 


State. 


Wine.       I        Spirit. 


Duties. 


New  Hampshire 
Massachusetts  . , 
Rhode  Island  . . 
Connecticut    . .  .  . 

Vermont    , 

New   York    

New  Jersey  . . . , 
Pennsylvania    . . . 

Delaware    

Maryland    

Virginia     

Ohio    

Tennessee    

North  Carolina  . 
South  Carolina  . 
Georgia    


152 
558 

43 
460 

78 
833 
235 
555 

77 
364 
556. 


No  returns. 


512 

1,955 

263 

1,010 

237 

J, 444 

367 

644 

137 

580 

928 


7 

3 

73 

132 

142 

310 

44 

97 

$  3,320 
12,565 

1.395 
7,346 
1,575 
11,362 
2,995 
5,990 
1,058 
4,712 
7,420 


40 

1,02s 

2,260 

700 


Total 


4,177 


I         8,592         I         63,764 


♦     Report   of   Tench    Coxe,    Commissioner   of   Revenue, 
Nov.  29,  1797,  in  American  State  Papers,  Vol.  I,  p.  566. 


66  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

The  second  war  with  England,  that  of  1812,  made 
necessary  another  rearrangement  of  the  nation's 
finances.  As  a  part  of  the  fiscal  scheme  adopted  for 
carrying  on  the  war,  duties  on  imports  were  doubled, 
and  a  system  of  excise  was  inaugurated.  The  latter 
included  licenses  on  retailers  of  "wines,  spirituous 
liquors  and  foreign  merchandise."  The  Act  of  August 
2,  1813,  laid  duties  on  such  licenses,  to  commence 
January  i,  1814,  as  follows: 

Retailers  in  towns  and  villages  of  100  families  and  up- 
wards, living  within  one  square  mile,  to  pay  $25  for  a  full 
license;  wines  alone  paid  $20;  domestic  and  distilled  spirits 
alone,  $15;  foreign  merchandise  other  than  wines  and  liquors, 
$15. 

Retailers  in  other  places  paid:  merchandise,  wines,  spirits, 
$15;  wines  and  spirits,  $12;  domestic  distilled  spirits  alone,  $10. 
All  duties  to  continue  for  one  year  after  the  termination  of 
the  war. 

These  taxes,  enacted  to  cease  one  year  after  the 
termination  of  the  war,  proved  to  be  wholly  insuffi- 
cient for  the  public  needs.  The  embarrassment  of  the 
Treasury  became  so  great  that  a  special  session  of 
Congress  had  to  be  called,  further  loans  authorized, 
and  the  excise  tax  revised.  The  Act  of  Dec.  23,  1814, 
levied  an  additional  tax  upon  retail  liquor  dealers  of 
fifty  per  cent  to  begin  Feb.  i,  181 5.  This  additional 
tax  was  repealed  (Act  April  29,  1816),  after  December 
31,  1816,  except  on  salt  and  those  dealers  whose  stock 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  67 

was  valued  at  more  than  $100.  All  duties  were  re- 
moved (Act  Dec.  23,  1817)  from  December  31,  1817.* 
The  collections  from  internal  revenue  were  trivial 
as  compared  with  those  made  today,  yet  they  were 
collected  amid  many  wry  faces,  and  only  tolerated  by 
the  people  as  war  measures,  which  were  promptly  re- 
pealed as  soon  as  the  finances  of  the  nation  would 
permit.  The  accompanying  tablef  shows  the  receipts  from 
customs  duties  and  from  internal  revenue  from  the  be- 
ginning up  to  1838.  The  receipts  for  internal  revenue 
up  to  i8i4were  wholly  from  the  liquor  traffic.  Afterthat 
year  other  items  were  included  in  the  tax — silverware, 
jewelry,  household  furniture,  etc.  The  collections  for 
internal  revenue  for  the  years  in  which  there  was  no 
internal  revenue  is  accounted  for  by  the  fact  that  these 
revenues  which  were  assessed  were  not  wholly  col- 
lected until  some  years  after  the  laws  authorizing  them 

*  In  recommending  the  removal  of  this  tax,  President 
Monroe,  in  his  first  message  to  Congress  (Dec.  2,  1817),  ex- 
plained: "It  appearing  that  the  revenue  arising  from  the  im- 
posts and  tonnage,  and  from  the  sale  of  public  lands,  will  be 
fully  adequate  to  the  support  of  the  Civil  Government,  of  the 
present  Military  and  Naval  Establishments,  including  the 
annual  augmentation  of  the  latter  to  the  extent  provided  for, 
to  the  payment  of  the  interest  on  the  public  debt,  and  to  the 
extinguishment  of  it  at  the  times  authorized,  without  the  aid 
of  internal  taxes,' I  consider  my  duty  to  recommend  to  Con- 
gress their  repeal." — Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents, 
Vol.  II,  p.  19. 

t  Register  of  the  Treasury,  Account  of  Receipts  and 
Expenditures  of  the  United  States,  1837,  p.  242. 


68 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


had  been  repealed.    As  a  matter  of  fact,  a  considerable 
amount   was   never   collected   at    all. 


RECEIPTS  FROM  DUTIES  ON  CUSTOMS  AND 
INTERNAL  REVENUE. 


Receipts.          i 

Year. 

Receipts. 

Year.  1 

Internal 

Internal 

1 

Customs. 

Revenue. 

1 

Customs. 

Revenue. 

1791 

$  4,399.473 

^    0     1 

1815 

$  7,282,942 

$4,678,059 

1792 

4,443»07i 

208,943  ! 

1816 

36,306,875 

5,124,708 

1793 

4,255,307 

^7,706  ! 

1817 

26,283,348 

2,678,101 

1794 

4,801,065 

274,090 

1818 

17,176,385 

955,279 

1795 

5,588,461 

337,755 

1819 

20,283,609 

229,594 

1796 

6,567,988 

475,290 

1820 

15,005,612 

106,261 

1797 

7,549,650 

575,491 

1821 

13,004,447 

69,028 

i,  1 06,062 

644,358 

1822 

17,589,762 

67,666 

1800 

6,^610,449 

779,136 

1823 

19,088,433 

34,242 

9,080,933 

809,397 

1824 

17,878,326 

34,663 

1 80 1 

10,750,779 

1,048,033 
-T2i\S^99 

1825 

20,098,713 

25,771 

1802 

12,438,235 

1826 

23,341,332 

21,590 

1803 

10,479,418 

215,180 

1827 

19,712,283 

19,886 

,804 

11,098,565 

50,941 

i  1828 

23,205,524 

17,452 

1805 

12,936,487 

21,747 

i  1829 

22,681,966 

14,503 

1806 

•  14,667,698 

20,I0I 

i  1830 

21,922,391 

12, 161 

1807 

15,845,522 

13,051 

1831 

24,224,442 

6,934 

1808 

^,363,551 

8,211 

1832 

28,465,237 

11,631 

"T5o9 

7,296,021 

4,044 

1833 

29,032,509 

2,759 

1810 

8,583,039 

7,431 

1834 

16,214,957 

4,196 

1811 

13,313,223 

2,296 

1835 

19,391,311 

10,459 

1812 

8,958,778 

4,903 

1836 

23,409,941 

370 

1813 

13,224,623 

4,755 

1837 

11,169,290 

5,494 

1814 

5,998,772 

1,662,985 

About  ten  years  ^fter  the  special  taxes  levied  to 
pay  the  expenses  of  the  Second  War  with  England 
had  been  repealed,  another  attempt  was  made  to 
resurrect  the  internal  revenue  system.  The  proposal 
made,  however,  was  only  to  levy  such  a  tax  upon 
spirits,  they  being  always  and  everywhere  an  at- 
tractive object  of  taxation  in  all  forms.  In  1826  reso- 
lutions were  considered  in  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives, reciting  that  "it  is  expedient  to  increase  the  duty 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  69 

onfall  imported  spirit,  and  to  levy  an  excise  on  do- 
mestic liquors."  The  matter  was  referred  to  a  select 
committee  which  reported  favorably,  saying  in  part: 
"The  committee,  however,  have  no  hesitation  in  express- 
ing their  opinion  that  no  fairer  subject  of  taxation  and  reve- 
nue can  be  presented  to  the  government  than  ardent  spirit, 
whether  foreign  or  domestic;  and  they  would  desire  to  see  a 
larger  portion  of  our  revenues  derived  from  this  source,  and 
that  some  of  the  more  immediate  articles  of  prime  necessity 
to  the  comfort  of  the  poor,  and  the  middle  classes  of  society, 
might  be  free  from  duty."* 

The  excise  recommendation  of  the  committee 
failed  of  adoption  by  Congress. 

From  the  year  1818,  up  to  the  outbreak  of  the 
Civil  War,  the  internal  traffic  in  and  manufacture  of 
intoxicating  liquors  was  wholly  unrestricted  and  un- 
taxed by  the  Federal  government.  During  the  same 
period,  a  changing  customs  duty  was  levied  on  im- 
ported liquors,  sometimes  small,  and  sometimes  a 
heavy  one,  but  always  sufficient  to  protect  the  internal 
liquor  traffic  from  serious  foreign  competition.  In 
this  period  of  more  than  forty  years,  while  the  traffic 
in  intoxicating  liquors  suffered  no  restraint  from  and 
carried  no  burdens  imposed  upon  it  by  the  Federal 
government,  it  was  exposed  to  savage  assaults  from 
the  states.  These  attacks  came  thick  and  fast.  In  this 
period  was  waged  the  war  against  the  traffic  by  the 
American  Temperance  Society,  the  American  Tem- 
perance Union,  the  Washingtonian     movement,     the 

*     Report  House  Select  Committee,  May  19,  1826,  Nine- 
teenth Congress,  First  Session. 


70  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Father  Mathew  and  other  crusades,  and  the  fraternal 
temperance  organizations  led  by  the  Sons  of  Tem- 
perance. By  the  close  of  1855,  fourteen  states  were 
wholly  under  prohibitory  law.  It  was  in  this  epoch 
that  the  prerogatives  of  the  states  were  more  jealously 
guarded  than  at  present,  and  many  functions  of  gov- 
ernment were  left  to  them  that  have  since  been  taken 
over  by  the  Federal  government.  The  development 
of  central  authority  has  chiefly  taken  place  since  the 
Civil  War. 

To  meet  the  expenses  of  this  appalling  struggle, 
taxation  of  the  most  drastic  character  was  resorted  to. 
The  customs  duties  were  raised  to  an  extraordinary 
point,  and  an  internal  revenue  tax  of  the  most  far 
reaching  character  was  resorted  to  in  1862.  In  the 
Act  of  July  I,  of  that  year,  Congress  deliberately 
taxed  everything  that  would  yield  a  revenue,  and  fine 
questions  of  ethics  were  almost  wholly  overshadowed 
in  the  one  pressing  need  of  revenue.  Yet  when  it 
came  to  the  proposal  to  license  the  retail  dealers  in 
intoxicating  liquors  there  was  a  most  vigorous  pro- 
test in  both  houses  of  Congress.  In  the  House,  the 
measure  was  introduced  by  Anson  P.  Morrill*  of 
Maine.  In  introducing  the  measure,  Mr.  Morrill  paid 
his  respects  to  the  traffic  in  whisky  as  follows : 

"The  consumption  will  not  be  seriously  checked;  and  if 
it  could  be,  suchi  a  result  would  bring  us  no  national  disgrace. 

♦  In  1853,  when  the  Democratic  party  of  Maine  decided 
to  oppose  Prohibition,  Mr.  Morrill  bolted  his  party,  and  ran 
for  Governor  on  a  Free  Soil  and  Prohibition  platforin. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  71 

Whisky  and  rum  with  the  duty  added,  will  still  leave  it  pos- 
sible for  any  man  or  brute  to  get  drunk  in  our  land  on  cheap- 
er terms  than  in  any  other  that  I  know  of."* 

Again  referring  to  the  proposed  tax  on  whole- 
salers, Mr.  Morrill  said : 

"If  you  make  this  tax  so  high  as  to  prohibit  the  traffic, 
which  it  does  not  propose  to  do,  you  can  do  no  more  valuable 
service  to  your  country.  I  would  make  the  tax  so  high  that 
no  wholesaler  or  retail  dealer  could  be  found  in  the  land,  if 
it  were  practicable.  If  you  would  do  that,  if  you  could  entire- 
ly stop  the  use  of  intoxicating  drinks  and  the  war  rage  on, 
your  country  would  suffer  less  by  the  war  than  it  has  and 
does  from  the  use  of  intoxicating  liquors. "f 

The  contest  in  the  House  over  the  licensing  of 
the  liquor  traffic  took  the  form  of  opposition  to  the 
proposal  to  license  retail  dram  sellers  in  Prohibition 
states.  Representative  Sargent,  Harrison  and  Wood- 
ruff proposed  various  amendments  to  limit  the  licens- 
ing of  the  traffic  to  territory  where  the  state  and  local 
authorities  recognized  the  traffic  as  a  lawful  one.f 

The  debate  over  this  proposal  continued  through- 

*  Congressional  Globe,  37th  Congress,  2d  Session, 
Part  II,  p.   1 195. 

t     Id.,  p.  1327. 

t  These  proposals  were  directly  in  line  with  the  policy 
adopted  in  the  two  previous  internal  revenue  laws.  The  Act 
approved  June  5,  1794  contained  the  following  proviso  (Sec. 
3):  "Provided  always  that  no  license  shall  be  granted  to 
any  person  to  sell  wines  or  foreign  distilled  spirituous  liq- 
uors, who  is  prohibited  to  sell  the  same  by  the  laws  of  any 
state." 

The  Act  of  Aug.  2,  1813,  contained  the  following: 

"Sec.  3 Provided  always,  that  no  license  shall 

be  granted  to  any  person  to  sell  wines,  distilled  spirituous  liq- 
uors, or  merchandise,  as  aforesaid,  who  is  prohibited  to  sell 
the  same  by  any  state." 


72  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

out  most  of  the  day  (March  21).  In  this  debate, 
Congressman  Morris  made  this  most  interesting  pro- 
posal, which,  however,  was  ruled  out  of  order  by  the 
chair : 

"That  the  United  States  ought  to  co-operate  with  any- 
state  which  may  adopt  gradual  abolishment  of  the  evils  re- 
sulting from  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors,  giving  to  such 
state  pecuniary  aid  to  be  used  by  such  state,  in  its  discretion, 
to  compensate  for  the  inconveniences,  public  and  private,  pro- 
duced by  such  a  change  of  systems."* 

This  debate  delved  into  the  borders  of  numerous 
unsettled  questions  involving  the  relationship  be- 
tween the  states  and  the  general  government — rela- 
tionships which  were  not  provided  for  in  the  adoption 
of  the  constitution  in  1789,  because  the  delegates  were 
unable  to  agree  upon  any  policy.  The  failure  of  the 
Fathers  to  outline  some  policy  in  this  respect  left  a 
legacy  of  endless  troubles  for  the  succeeding  century, 


*  Id.,  p.  1329.  It  was  at  this  time  that  the  proposal  was 
being  agitated  similarly  to  assist  states  that  would  abolish 
slavery.  The  proposal  was  for  the  Federal  government  to 
assist  by  compensating  the  slave  owners  through  the  states 
that  would  adopt  such  a  policy.  At  the  suggestion  of  Presi- 
dent Lincoln,  Congress,  on  April  10,  1862,  passed  the  follow- 
ing joint  resolution: 

"Be  it  resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled, 
That  the  United  States  ought  to  co-operate  with  any  state 
which  may  adopt  the  gradual  abolishment  of  slavery,  giving 
such  state  pecuniary  aid,  to  be  used  by  such  state  in  its  discre- 
tion, to  compensate  for  the  inconveniences,  public  and  pri- 
vate, produced  by  such  a  change  of  system." 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  yi 

and  was  the  prime  cause  of  the  titanic  struggle  be- 
tween the  states.  But  in  this  particular  debate  in  the 
House  fiscal  questions  so  overshadowed  all  other  in- 
terests that  a  compromise  was  adopted,  in  which  the 
precedentset  in  the  two  preceding  internal  revenue  acts, 
which  prohibited  the  licensing  of  the  traffic  in  Prohibi- 
tory territory,  was  overturned.  The  plan  agreed 
upon  was  the  following: 

"Retail  dealers  in  liquors,  including  distilled  spirits,  fer- 
mented liquors,  and  wines  of  every  description,  shall  pay- 
twenty  dollars  for  each  license.  Each  person  who  shall  sell  or 
offer  for  sale  such  liquors  in  quantities  less  than  three  gallons 
at  one  time,  to  the  same  purchaser,  shall  be  regarded  as  a 
retail  dealer  in  liquors  under  this  Act.  But  this  shall  not 
authorize  any  spirits,  liquors,  wines  or  malt  liquors  to  be 
drunk  on  the  premises. 

In  the  Senate,  the  debate  took  a  broader  scope, 
the  general  principle  of  licensing  the  retail  traffic  be- 
ing itself  savagely  attacked.  On  May  27,  Senator 
Henry  Wilson  of  Massachusetts  moved  to  strike  out 
the  offensive  section,  saying: 

"My  reason  for  making  this  motion  is  that  I  do  not  think 
any  man  in  this  country  should  have  a  license  from  the  Fed- 
eral government  to  sell  intoxicating  liquors.  I  look  upon  the 
liquor  trade  as  grossly  immoral,  causing  more  evil  than  any- 
thing else  in  this  country,  and  I  think  the  Federal  govern- 
ment ought  not  to  derive  a  revenue  from  the  retail  of  intoxi- 
cating drinks.  I  think  if  this  section  remains  in  the  bill,  it 
will  have  a  most  demoralizing  influence  upon  the  country,  for 
it  will  lift  into  a  kind  of  respectability  the  retail  traffic  in 
liquors.  The  man  who  has  paid  the  Federal  government  twen- 
ty dollars  for  a  license  to  retail  ardent  spirits  will  feel 
that  he  is  acting  under  the  authority  of  the  Federal  govern- 


74  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

ment,  and  that  any  regulations,  state  or  municipal,  interfering 
with  him,  are  mere  temporary  and  local  arrangements,  that 
should  yield  to  the  authority  of  the  Federal  government.  Sir, 
I  hope  the  Congress  of  the  United  States  is  not  to  put  upon 
the  statute  book  of  the  country  a  law  by  which  tens  of  thous- 
ands of  persons  in  this  country  who  are  dealing  out  ardent 
spirits  to  the  destruction  of  the  health  and  life  of  hundreds  of 
thousands  and  the  morals  of  the  nation,  are  to  be  raised  to  a 
respectable  position  by  paying  the  Federal  government  twenty 
dollars  for  a  license  to  do  so. 

"I  tell  you.  Sir,  there  is  not  a  rumseller,  or  a  friend  of  the 
rumseller  on  this  continent  that  will  not  welcome  this  tax. 
It  will  be  hailed  from  one  end  of  this  country  to  the  other 
by  the  whole  rumselling  interests  of  this  country.  If  the 
rumsellers  of  the  country  had  held  a  national  convention  they 
would  have  asked  you  to  put  precisely  such  a  thing  as  a  li- 
cense to  sell  liquors  in  your  bill.  There  is  no  doubt  of  it  at 
all.  Why,  sir,  it  has  been  the  struggle  of  the  retailers  of  rum 
all  over  this  country  for  a  quarter  of  a  century  to  adopt  the 
license  system  and  get  licensed.  They  have  contended  for  it; 
they  have  fought  for  it;  they  have  carried  it  to  the  polls;  they 
have  carried  it  to  your  legislative  assemblies;  they  have 
carried  it  everywhere;  and  now  the  Congress  of  the  United 
States  proposes  to  establish  the  system  rejected  by  many  of 
the  states  as  sanctioning  crime,  and  do  not  grant  them  at  all. 
Does  it  tend  to  the  consumption  of  ardent  spirits  in  this  coun- 
try to  tax  its  manufacture?  Certainly  not.  But  when  we 
come  to  the  retail  trade  of  it,  if  this  government  will  give 
every  man  who  asks  it  a  license  to  sell  liquor,  you  will  shingle 
this  nation  over  with  licenses  to  sell  liquor.  We  are  now  told 
that  if  the  government  should  license  in  those  states  where  it 
is  prohibited,  the  liquor  dealer  would  run  his  risk.  That  is 
true;  but  suppose  the  government  does  come  into  any  state 
and  gives  every  applicant  who  desires  it  a  license,  and  let 
him  run  his  chance.     I  will  tell  you  what  the  effect  will  be. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  75 

It  will  give  immense  power  and  strength  to  the  liquor  selling 
interests.  It  will  give  them  power  and  weight  to  contest  and 
put  down  the  state  laws  practically,  if  not  repeal  them  alto- 
gether. Sir,  for  one,  I  shall  not  vote  for  this  bill  with  this 
provision  in  it.  I  cannot  record  my  name  for  an  act  to  give 
ttie  countenance  and  sanction  of  this  nation  to  the  retailing 
of  intoxicating  drinks  to  the  people.  I  cannot,  I  will  not, 
give  a  vote  for  a  bill  that  shall  put  in  any  man's  pocket  the 
right  to  retail  intoxicating  liquors  to  the  people  of  this 
country."* 

The  assault  of  Senator  Wilson  on  the  license  plan 
was  ably  supported  by  Senator  Pomeroy  from  Kansas. 
The  force  of  the  attack,  however,  was  dulled  by  the 
fact  that  the  Chairman  of  the  Ways  and  Means  Com- 
mittee, who  managed  the  measure  in  the  Senate,  was 
William  Pitt  Fessenden  of  Maine,  who,  by  his  stout 
championship  of  Prohibition  measures  in  his  own 
state,  had  caused  him  to  be  classed  among  the  "Ram- 
rods," a  term  applied  to  the  radical  enemies  of  the 
saloon  in  Maine.  Mr.  Fessenden  took  the  position 
that  while  nominally  a  license,  it  did  not  authorize 
the  sale  as  against  state  law,  and  pointed  to  the  fol- 
lowing clause  of  the  bill  to  substantiate  his  claim : 

"That  no  license  hereinbefore  provided  for,  if  granted, 
shall  be  construed  to  authorize  the  commencement  or  contin- 
uation of  any  trade,  business,  occupation,  or  employment 
therein  mentioned,  within  any  state  or  territory  in  which  it 
s'hall  be  specially  prohibited  by  the  laws  thereof,  or  in  viola- 
tion of  the  laws  of  any  state."  t 

*  Congressional  Globe,  37th  Congress,  2d  Session,  Part 
III,  pp.  2376-2378. 

t     Id.,  pp.  2379  et  seq. 


7^  THE   FEDP:RAL   GOVERNMENT 

This  provision,  and  the  fact  that  it  was  regarded 
as  only  a  temporary  measure  to  meet  the  require- 
ments of  the  war,  won  for  the  bill  the  support  of  some 
of  the  most  influential  opponents  of  the  saloon  of  the 
day.*  These  men  took  the  view  that,  while  the  bill 
nominally  licensed  the  traffic,  it  gave  no  authority  to 
sell  as  against  state  law,  and  was  therefore,  a  burden 
so  far  as  it  went.  In  1866  (Act  of  July  13)  the  In- 
ternal Revenue  Act  of  1862  was  remodelled.  Among 
the  alterations  made  was  to  change  the  "license"  of 
the  retailer  into  a  ''tax,"  and  merely  issue  a  receipt  for 
the  money.  This  Act  fixed  the  tax  on  ''retail  liquor 
dealers"  at  $25,  and  on  ''retail  dealers  in  malt  liquor" 
at  $20,  which  rates  have  since  remained.  This  policy 
of  "taxing"  the  retailer  of  vice  has  begotten  a  series 
of  complications.  Many  of  the  states  have  declared, 
in  their  legislation,  that  the  payment  of  this  special 


*  Major  J.  B.  Merwin,  a  personal  friend  of  President 
Lincoln,  who  had  been  associated  with  Lincoln  in  temperance 
work  in  Illinois,  and  who  in  the  early  stages  of  the  war  was 
engaged  in  visiting  the  camps  of  the  Union  Army  conducting 
a  temperance  propaganda  among  the  soldiers  under  creden- 
tials from  General  Winfield  Scott,  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  President  Lincohi  was  hostile  to  the  provision  licen- 
sing the  retail  traffic  in  liquors,  and  only  assented  thereto 
When  assured  by  such  men  as  Salmon  P.  Chase  and  William 
H.  Seward  that  the  obnoxious  feature  would  be  eliminated 
when  the  pressing  need  therefor  was  over.  Henry  Wilson, 
who  frequently  voiced  the  President's  views  on  the  floor  of 
the  Senate,  expressed  Mr.  Lincoln's  dissatisfaction  at  the 
licensing  proposal. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  ^y 

tax  as  a  liquor  dealer  shall  constitute  prima  facie  evi- 
dence that  the  holder  thereof  is  engaged  in  the  busi- 
ness of  a  retail  liquor  dealer.  A  Federal  statute  also 
provides*  that  a  list  of  such  taxpayers,  with  the  ad- 
dresses and  class  of  each,  shall  be  kept  for  public  in- 
spection in  the  office  of  each  collector  of  revenue. 
The  making  of  these  tax  receipts  prima  facie  evi- 
dence that  the  holders  thereof  were  engaged  in  the 
business  created  a  great  demand  for  the  presence  of 
collectors  to  testify  in  local  courts  as  witnesses  in 
various  proceedings  against  liquor  dealers.  Partly  to 
avoid  this  annoyance,  and  partly  to  shield  as  far  as 
possible  delinquent  liquor  dealers  who  were  regarded 
as  "customers"  or  ''taxpayers"  of  the  Internal  Reve- 
nue Department,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  es- 
tablished a  regulation!  forbidding  collectors  from  giv- 


*  Sec.  3240,  R.  S.  (Act  of  Dec.  24,  1872,  amended  by  the 
Act  of  June  21,  1906)   reads: 

"Sec.  3240.  Each  collector  of  internal  revenue  shall,  under 
regulations  of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  place 
and  keep  conspicuously  in  his  office,  for  public  inspection,  an 
alphabetical  list  of  the  names  of  all  persons  who  shall  have 
paid  special  taxes  within  his  district,  and  shall  state  thereon 
the  time,  place,  and  business  for  which  such  special  taxes  have 
been  paid,  and  upon  application  of  any  prosecuting  officer  of 
any  state,  county,  or  municipality  he  shall  furnish  a  certified 
copy  thereof,  as  of  a  public  record,  for  which  a  fee  of  one 
dollar  for  each  one  hundred  words  or  fraction  thereof  in  the 
copy  or  copies  so  requested  may  be  charged." 

t  Regulations,  Series  7,  No.  12,  Aug.  3,  1896;  Regulations 
April  15,  1898,  pp.  41,  42;  Regulations  April  18,  1904,  p.  45.  See 
also  Sections  161,  251,  321  and  3167,  Revised  Statutes  U.  S. 


78  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

ing  such  testimony  even  when  subpoenaed  by  a  state 
court.  Grave  abuses  grew  up  under  this  ruling  in  dis- 
tilling districts,  where  spirits  of  great  value  were 
stored  in  bonded  warehouses  for  long  periods  of  time 
while  aging.  Until  these  spirits  were  withdrawn  for 
consumption,  under  the  law,  the  Federal  internal  reve- 
nue duties  were  not  paid.  Inasmuch  as  the  internal 
revenue  officials  refused  all  information  as  to  the  con- 
tents of  these  warehouses,  the  local  tax  authorities 
were  compelled  to  accept,  for  purposes  of  taxation, 
whatever  values  the  distillers  placed  upon  their  hold- 
ings. These  distillers  evaded  taxation  of  their  hold- 
ings by  returning  ridiculously  small  amounts  of  whisky 
as  being  in  their  possession.  An  attempt  made  in 
Kentucky  in  1899,  to  compel  the  distillers  to  pay  their 
taxes,  met  with  failure.  The  auditor's  agent  insti- 
tuted civil  proceedings  in  Carroll  County,  Kentucky, 
against  Elias  Block  &  Sons,  distillers,  under  the  pro- 
visions of  Sec.  4241  (Ky.  Statutes),  to  compel,  for  pur- 
poses of  taxation,  an  assessment  of  spirits  held  by 
them  in  bonded  warehouses.  David  N.  Comingore, 
Collector  of  Internal  Revenue,  was  subpoenaed  before 
W.  A.  Price,  notary  public,  and,  upon  his  refusal  to 
testify,  was  fined  $5  and  sentenced  to  jail  for  six 
hours,  or,  until  he  would  consent  to  respond.  This 
sentence  was  immediately  confirmed  by  the  county 
court  at  Covington,  Ky.  Thereupon  Collector  Comin- 
gore brought  habeas  corpus  proceedings  in  the  United 
States  District  Court,  where  he  was  discharged  from 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  79 

custody.     In   rendering  his   decision,    (July   5,   1899) 
Judge  Evans  affirmed : 

"That  the  reports  are  executive  documents  which  the 
United  States,  in  its  sovereign  capacity,  has  acquired  for  the 
sole  purpose  of  administering  its  own  governmental  affairs. 

'That  the  officers  of  the  National  Government  cannot  be 
compelled  by  another  sovereignty  to  put  these  documents 
at  its  disposal  without  some  express  law  of  the  United  States 
authorizing  it. 

"That  the  reports  are  a  part  of  Government  Archives, 
accumulated  through  mere  administrative  and  executive  pro- 
cesses, and  as  such  are  privileged  at  least  to  the  extent  that 
no  other  sovereignty  in  its  own  interest  can  seize  or  control 
them  for  any  purpose  whatever,  without  the  consent  of  the 
sovereign  owner  lawfully  manifested,  and 

"That  the  effort  to  make  the  collector  testify  to  their  con- 
tents is  virtually  an  attempt  to  compel  the  United  States  to 
produce  them."* 

This  cause  of  vital  importance  to  the  local  taxing 
authorities  of  distilling  districts,  naturally  was  ap- 
pealed to  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United  States, 
where  the  decision  of  Judge  Evans  was  affirmed.f  In 
handing  down  the  decision  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
(April  9,  1900)  Justice  Harlan  said : 

"In  our  opinion,  the  Secretary,  under  the  regulations  as 
to  custody,  use,  and  preservation  of  the  records,  papers  and 
property,  appertaining  to  the  business  of  his  department  may 
take  from  a  subordinate,  such  as  a  collector,  all  discretion  as 
to  permitting  the  records  in  his  custody  to  be  used  for  any 

*  For  a  full  record  of  this  case,  see  Treasury  Decisions, 
1899,  Vol.  II,  p.  388  et  seq. 

t     Boske  vs.  Comingore,  177  U.  S.,  p.  459. 


8o  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

other  purpose  than  the  collection  of  the  revenue,  and  reserve 
for  his  own  determination  all  matters  of  this  character." 

Since  the  rendering  of  this  decision,  it  has  been 
practically  impossible  for  state  and  local  taxing  au- 
thorities to  compel  distillers  to  pay  taxes  on  spirits 
held  in  bonded  warehouses  during  the  years  of  aging 
process.  The  distillers  habitually  make  returns  of 
nominal  holdings  which  the  assessors  are  compelled 
to  accept,  having  no  other  recourse. 

In  the  Indian  Territory,  prior  to  the  organization 
of  the  state  of  Oklahoma,  these  Federal  tax  receipts 
of  retail  liquor  dealers  were  frequently  used,  even  in 
the  Federal  courts,  as  evidence  against  liquor  sellers 
who  sold  liquor  contrary  to  Federal  law,  the  Territory 
then  being  under  prohibition  by  Federal  enactment  (Act 
of  March  i,  1895).  The  spectacle  of  one  branch  of  the 
government  levying  a  tax  upon  a  criminal  business, 
and  another  branch  of  the  same  government  bringing 
prosecutions,  virtually  for  the  payment  of  the  same 
tax,  naturally  created  much  criticism  and  confusion. 
Various  bills  have  been  introduced  into  Congress  to 
resurrect  the  provisions  of  the  laws  of  1794  and  1813, 
which  limited  the  issuing  of  tax  receipts  or  license  to 
those  who  are  authorized  to  sell  by  state  law. 

Some  opposition  to  this  legislation,  however,  has 
emanated  from  the  Prohibition  camp.  Many  enemies 
of  the  saloon  have  found  these  tax  receipts  more  or 
less  useful  in  prosecutions.  Others  ignore  the  obliga- 
tions of  the  government  to  protect  its  taxpayers,  and 
hold  that  the  tax  is  a  burden,  and  that  the  burdens  on 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  8i 

the  saloon  should  be  increased  rather  than  dimin- 
ished.* In  the  debate  over  the  passage  of  the  Act  of 
1862,  Senator  Charles  Sumner  suggested  the  follow- 
ing provision,  but  did  not  press  it  to  a  vote : 

"That  no  license  hereinbefore  provided  shall  be  granted 
for  any  trade,  business,  occupation,  or  employment  within 
any  State  or  Territory,  except  to  such  persons  as  may  be 
authorized  by  the  laws  thereof."  t 

The  heavy  taxation  upon  the  traffic  at  the  out- 
break of  the  Civil  War  was  followed  by  changes  in 
the  public  status  of  the  business.     Prior  to  the  war, 

*  Senator  Wilson,  while  vigorously  opposing  the  license 
of  1862,  was  not  opposed  to  a  tax.  In  the  debate  over  the 
bill,  he  declared:  "I  do  not  object  to  taxing  liquor  sellers; 
I  am  willing  to  tax  anybody  and  everybody;  but  the  dis- 
tinction between  a  tax  and  a  license  is  obvious;  you  tax  a  man 
for  importing  liquors;  that  is  a  tax,  and  I  think  the  higher  th€ 
tax  the  better  it  is;  and  if  it  was  so  liigh  as  to  prohibit  the 
importation,  so  much  the  better.  You  tax  a  manufacturer  of 
liquor,  and  the  higher  you  tax  him,  the  better.  I  would  like 
to  put  a  tax  of  a  dollar  a  gallon  on  all  liquor  manu- 
factured, and  I  would  like  to  put  enough  on  it  to 
prohibit  the  manufacture  of  a  single  gallon  of  liquor 
in  the  country  if  I  could.  If  I  had  the  power 
to  do  that,  and  could  do  it,  I  should  think  that  I  was  a  public 
benefactor.  You  do  not  license  a  man  to  manufacture  liquor, 
but  you  give  him  a  license  to  sell.  If  this  was  a  question  to 
"license  men  to  manufacture  liquor  in  this  country,  I  would 
vote  against  it,  and  oppose  it,  because  it  would  be  giving  them 
a  privilege,  a  grant,  a  certificate  from  this  government  to  do 
that  thing." — Congressional  Globe,  37th  Congress,  2d  Ses- 
sion, Part  III,  p.  2398. 

t     Id.,  p.  2400. 


82  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

when  the-  Federal  government  held  aloof,  and  the 
idea  of  high  taxation  had  not  been  considered,  the 
traffic  stood  upon  its  merits  and  was  subject  to  open 
attack  on  all  sides.  Having  no  merit,  it  was  at  the 
mercy  of  the  people  and  their  legislatures.  The  era 
of  high  taxation  has  revolutionized  this  situation. 

The  first  effect  of  the  war  tax  of  1862  was  to  force 
a  sudden  elevation  of  wholesale  prices  of  liquor.  The 
following  tabulation  of  the  wholesale  prices  of  whisky 
in  the  New  York  market  for  a  series  of  years  ending 
with  1864,  illustrates  this : 


WHOLESALE 

PRICE 

WHISKY 

IN   N.Y. 

MARKETS.* 

Year. 

Average  Pr 

ice. 

Highest. 

Lowest. 

1858 

$  .24^ 

$  .29 

$  .21 

1859 

.27 

.31 

.25 

i860 

.22 

.27 

.17 

1861 

.isy2 

.21 

.14 

1862 

.29 

•39 

.20 

1863 

•53 

.96 

.39^/^ 

1864 

1.45 

2.24 

.80 

In  a  report  dated  February,  1866,  these  changes 
in  the  prices  of  whisky  were  discussed  in  an  official 
report  to  Congress,  which  said : 

"Previous  to  the  imposition  of  this  tax  by  the  national 
government,  raw  whisky  was  retailed  at  almost  every  point 
in  the  country  at  from  7  to  15  cents  per  quart,  or  from  25  to 

40  cents  per  gallon It  was  also  a  very  general  custom,  in 

many  parts  of  the  country,  for  agriculturists  to  buy  whisky 


*     Internal  Revenue  Record,  April  7,  1866. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  83 

by  the  barrel  for  the  use  of  their  farming  help,  and  to  use  it 
freely  as  a  beverage  during  the  season  of  harvesting."* 

The  prices  of  drinks  also  increased,  and  the  era 
of  whisky  at  fifteen  cents  per  glass,  or  "two  for  a 
quarter,"  was  developed.  The  wholesaler  shifted  the 
burden  of  the  taxes  upon  the  retailer.  The  latter 
promptly  laid  it  upon  the  drinkers  at  the  bar.  In  the 
last  analysis,  the  tax  was  largely  paid  by  the  women 
and  children  of  the  victims  of  drink,  through  the 
privations  they  endured  by  their  means  of  support 
being  squandered  for  drink  by  the  bread-winner  of  the 
family.  It  came  to  pass  that  the  retailer  found  that 
there  was  a  larger  profit  in  a  sale  of  highly  taxed 
whisky  at  12^  or  15  cents  per  drink,  than  in  tax  free 
whisky  at  five  cents.  The  liquor  traffic  thus  de- 
veloped into  a  machine  for  collecting  government 
revenues  from  the  weak,  the  poverty  laden  and  the 
defenseless. 

The  liquor  dealers  eventually  learned  that  the 
man  who  wanted  a  drink  would  take  it  anyhow,  re- 
gardless of  the  price,  provided  he  could  get  it.  They 
also  found  in  the  high  Federal  taxes  which  they  paid 
the  government  the  most  effective  system  ever  de- 
vised for  the  intrenchment  of  the  saloon  system. 
While  always  ready  to  cut  down  somewhat  the  ex- 
cessive taxes  of  war  periods,  the  liquor  dealer  has 
since  stoutly  advocated  the  high  tax  on  his  product- 
John   M.   Atherton,    President   of  the   National   Pro- 


*     Report  U.  S.  Revenue  Commission:     Executive  Docu- 
ment 62,  Thirty-ninth  Congress,  First  Session. 


84  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

tective  Association,  made  up  of  wholesalers  and  dis- 
tillers, explained  some  of  the  reasons  for  this  in  the 
following  words :  * 

"Under  the  Government  supervision  there  are  certain 
marks,  stamps,  gauges,  etc.,  put  on  every  barrel  of  whisky, 
which  serve  to  identify  it.  These  form  an  absolute  guaranty 
from  the  Government,  a  disinterested  party  of  the  highest 
authority,  to  the  genuineness  of  the  goods.  There  is  such  a 
tendency  to  adulteration  that  this  guaranty  is  of  great  value. 
Next,  if  the  general  Government  laid  no  tax  upon  whisky 
the  States  almost  certainly  would.  As  they  are  under  no 
compact  to  lay  the  same  tax,  the  rate  would  almost  certainly 
be  unequal.  For  instance,  with  a  tax  of  25  cents  a  gallon  on 
the  whisky  produced  in  Kentucky  the  State  would  have  an 
abundant  revenue  for  all  her  needs,  without  taxing  anything 
else.  But  it  might  happen  that  Ohio  and  Indiana  would  lay 
no  tax,  or  a  very  light  one,  upon  whisky.  In  that  case  Ken- 
tucky distillers  would  be  compelled  to  manufacture  at  a  very 
great  disadvantage,  and  would,  in  fact,  be  compelled  to  close 
altogether.  A  tax  by  the  National  Government  bears  on  all 
States  alike,  and  afifords  a  fair  field  for  competition." 

A  year  later,  when  war  taxes  were  being  cut 
away,  the  United  States  Brewers'  Convention,  held  in 
St.  Paul,  May  30,  31,  1888,  expressed  its  opinion  of  the 
Internal  Revenue  tax  on  its  members'  products  in 
these  words : 

"The  old  objection  urged  against  excises  could  not  at 
present  be  revived,  seeing  that  those  who  have  to  bear  the 
tax  and  all  the  inconveniences  that  are  said  to  grow  out  of 
its  alleged  obnoxious  features,  are  perfectly  satisfied  with 
their  present  status,  so  that,  as  we  have  stated  on  other  oc- 
casions, whatever  commiseration  may  be  felt  for  them  by  cer- 


*     Interview  in  "The  Voice,"  Dec.  29,  1887. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  85 

tain  theorists  is  just  so  much  sympathy  wasted.  As  far  as  the 
brewers  of  this  country  are  concerned,  it  is  well  known  that, 
so  far  from  opposing  an  excise,  they  materially  aided  the  Gov- 
ernment during  the  incipient  stages  of  the  system  in  making 
the  tax  collectable  as  cheaply  and  conveniently  as  possible. 
Their  action  at  that  time  was  not  only  prompted  by  the  in- 
tention to  prevent  injustice  being  done  them,  but  also,  in  a 
very  large  measure,  by  patriotic  motives;  while  their  present 
course  (of  non-interference  with  the  Federal  tax)  is  dictated 
not  only  by  industrial  considerations,  but  also  by  the  con- 
viction, sustained  by  the  experience  of  our  own  people  and  the 
people  of  many  other  civilized  countries,  that  the  present 
system,  while  perfectly  justifiable  when  viewed  from  the 
standpoint  of  political  economy,  promotes  temperance  more 
effectually  than  any  other  measure  yet  proposed  or  executed 

for  that  purpose To  judge  from  present  indications, 

there  is  no  danger  of  a  reduction  in  Internal  Revenue,  other 
than  that  derived  from  articles  which  do  not  concern  us 
industrially." 

The  satisfaction  of  the  liquor  dealers  with  the 
operation  of  the  high  tax  was  so  marked  that  it  at- 
tracted official  recognition.  Referring  to  the  internal 
revenue  tax  of  two  dollars  per  gallon,  the  Special 
Commissioner  of  Revenue  reported  to  Congress,  in 
February,  1866:  "On  the  part  of  many  and  perhaps 
the  majority  of  the  leading  distillers  of  the  country, 
an  opinion  strongly  adverse  to  any  alteration  of  the 
present  excise  has  been  expressed."* 

After  the  passage  of  the  war  revenue  act  of  1862, 
it  became  apparent  that  an  internal  tax  on  distilled 

*  Report  U.  S.  Revenue  Commission:  Executive  Docu- 
ment 62,  Thirty-ninth  Congress,  First  Session. 


86  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

spirits  would  also  be  levied  within  a  short  time.  The 
distillers  accepted  this  situation  with  ill  concealed 
glee,  became  very  patriotic,  and  almost  clamored  for 
the  tax.  At  the  same  time,  they  secretly  laid  their 
plans  to  prevent  the  tax  being  retroactive  in  any  re- 
spect; that  is,  to  prevent  the  tax  being  laid  on  the 
stock  on  hand,  and  to  lay  it  only  on  future  distillation. 
When  it  became  apparent  that  the  scheme  would  suc- 
ceed, every  distillery  in  the  country  began  running  to 
its  full  capacity  in  order  to  accumulate  as  large  a 
stock  of  tax  free  whisky  as  possible  to  be  sold  at 
high  prices  under  the  proposed  duty.  Senator  John 
Sherman  seemed  to  be  about  the  only  one  in  Congress 
to  appreciate  fully  what  this  policy  meant,  and  loudly 
lifted  his  voice  in  protest.     He  said: 

"It  has  been  known  ever  since  last  July  that  a  tax  would 
be  put  on  whisky,  and  all  the  distillers  of  the  country  have 
been  running  to  their  extremest  capacity,  and  today  they  are 
running  more  than  they  have  ever  done  before.  Every  old 
still  in  the  country  has  been  set  at  work,  simply  because  it  was 
supposed  that  a  tax  would  be  put  on  whisky,  and  that  the 
stock  on  hand  would  not  be  taxed." 

The  scheme  worked  out  as  the  distillers  desired. 
A  tax  of  twenty  cents  per  gallon  was  laid  on  whisky, 
but  not  to^be  levied  on  the  supply  on  hand.  This,  of 
course,  was  equivalent  to  adding  twenty  cents  to  the 
value  of  every  gallon  of  whisky  which  the  distillers 
had  accumulated  by  working  overtime  at  full  capacity 
during  the  preceding  months  of  strenuous  activity. 

As  soon  as  the  new  tax  went  into  effect,  distilling 
practically  stopped,  and  distillers  bent  their  efforts  to 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  87 

disposing  of  the  stock  accumulated  when  no  tax  was 
levied.  When  this  stock  became  low,  distillers  sud- 
denly became  afflicted  with  another  dose  of  patriotism 
and  clamored  for  a  still  higher  tax  on  the  same  old 
plan ;  not  to  be  levied,  of  course,  on  the  stock  on  hand. 
John  Sherman,  as  before,  lifted  up  his  voice  in  protest, 
but  of  no  avail.  The  distillers  wanted  the  higher  tax. 
They  and  the  "Third  House"  plotted  by  night  and 
sang  patriotic  airs  by  day.  The  result  was  that,  in 
1864,  Congress  three  times  raised  the  internal  tax  on 
whisky  to  60  cents,  $1.50  and  $2.00  respectively.  In 
no  case  was  the  tax  to  be  levied  on  the  stock  on  hand. 
Under  this  manipulation,  speculation  ran  riot,  and 
enormous  fortunes  were  made,  in  all  of  which  the 
United  States  Treasury  came  out  distinctly  second 
best.  In  the  following  year,  1865,  the  Special  Reve- 
nue Commission  was  appointed.  In  one  of  its  early 
reports  it  made  this  statement  to  Congress,  regarding 
the  operation  of  this  species  of  legislation : 

"The  immediate  effect  of  the  enactment  of  the  first  three 
and  successive  rates  of  duty  was  to  cause  an  almost  entire 
suspension  of  the  business  of  distilling,  which  was  resumed 
again  with  great  activity  as  soon  as  an  advance  in  the  rate  of 
tax  in  each  instance  became  probable.  The  stock  of  whisky 
and  high  wines  accumulated  in  the  country  under  this  course 
of  procedure  was  without  precedent,  and  Congress,  by  its 
refusal  to  make  the  advance  in  taxation  in  any  instance  re- 
troactive, virtually  legislated  for  the  benefit  of  the  distillers 
and  speculators  rather  than  for  the  Treasury  and  the  Govern- 
ment."* 

*  House  Executive  Document  No.  60,  39th  Congress, 
p.  19. 


88  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

This  was  a  rather  bald  statement  for  a  creature  of 
Congress  to  make  to  its  creator,  but  with  the  words  of 
John  Sherman  ringing  in  its  ears,  and  with  the  guilty 
dollars  said  to  be  jingling  in  the  pockets  of  certain 
members,  the  blunder  or  fraud  was  so  palpable  that 
silence  became  the  better  part  of  valor.  This  bold 
manipulation  of  the  law  for  the  benefit  of  speculators 
and  distillers,  a  speculation  in  which  the  Treasury  was 
robbed  of  the  bulk  of  the  revenue  intended  for  it, 
created  much  criticism  and  indignation  throughout  the 
country.  To  this  were  coupled  additional  troubles : 
Congress  had  provided  no  adequate  system  for  collect- 
ing the  revenues,  and  for  guarding  against  frauds. 
The  matter  of  inspecting  distilleries  was  frequently 
left  entirely  to  the  "workmen  or  partners  of  the  dis- 
tillery inspected."  George  Parnell,  United  States 
Revenue  Agent,  testified  that  distillers  manufactured 
and  fraudulently  sold  without  the  slightest  pretense 
of  concealment,  spirits,  in  quantities  ranging  from 
20,000  to  80,000  gallons,  without  suspicion  on  the  part 
of  local  officers,  and  that  the  business  was  not  con- 
ducted in  all  respects  legally  or  honestly.  He  further 
stated  :* 

"There  has  never  been  any  officer  appointed  under  the 
revenue  act,  whose  special  duty  it  was  to  look  after  the  dis- 
tilleries. The  inspectors  are  paid  in  the  shape  of  fees,  by  the 
distillers.     The  fees  are  generally  very  small.     In  most  cases 


*     Quoted   by   Thomann:      Liquor   Laws   of  the   United 
States,  p.  223. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  89 

all  the  inspectors  ever  thought  of  doing  was,  to  go  and  in- 
spect the  liquors  when  the  distillers  sent  for  them." 

In  abject  despair.  Congress  finally,  in  1868. 
adopted  the  recommendation  of  the  Revenue  Commis- 
sion, and  cut  the  tax  on  spirits  from  $2  to  50  cents 
per  gallon,  hoping  thereby  the  distillers  would  accept 
this  as  an  inducement  to  be  honest.  This  attempt  to 
construct  a  silk  purse  from  a  pig's  ear  also  failed,  and 
Congress  then  began  to  devise  ways  and  means  to 
compel  the  distillers  to  act  as  though  they  were  honest. 
In  the  development  of  this  purpose  Congress  has 
evolved  what  is  probably  the  most  thorough  and 
drastic  machine  ever  devised  for  compelling  a  business 
to  pay  its  legal  taxes.  The  system  goes  so  far  that 
the  whole  business  of  the  distiller  is  practically  taken 
possession  of  by  revenue  agents,  who  carry  the  keys, 
take  charge  of  the  books,  inspect  and  account  for 
every  bushel  of  grain  used,  and  do  not  even  allow  the 
distiller  to  go  upon  his  own  premises  except  during 
business  hours,  and  under  regulations  prescribed  by 
the  Treasur}^  Department,  which  hold  him  in  a  per- 
petual strait-jacket.  Like  the  disorderly  boy  in  the 
country  school  who  stands  in  a  corner  wearing  a 
dunce  cap,  the  distiller  is  good  from  mere  force  of 
circumstances.  The  following  table,  compiled  from 
various  reports  of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Reve- 
nue, gives  a  survey  of  the  operations  of  the  Internal 
Revenue  Department  under  the  various  changes  of 
law  since  the  enactment  of  the  famous  War  Tax  of 
1862,  so  far  as  distilled  spirits  are  concerned: 


90 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


RETURNS     OF       DISTILLED     SPIRITS     AND 
TAXES  THEREON  BY  FISCAL  YEARS. 


Fiscal 

Average  Rate 

Aggregate 

Aggregate 

Years 

Rate  of  Tax  at  Which 

of  Tax 

Collections 

Quantities 

Ended 

Collections  Were  Made 

per  Gallon 

For  Each 

For  Each 

June  30 

Fiscal  Year 

Fiscal  Year 

Gallons 

1863.... 

$0.20 

$0.20 

$3,229,990.79 

16,149,954 

1864... 

.20  to  .60 

.33    33-100 

28.431.797.83 

85,295,393 

1865... 

.20  .25  .50  .60  $1.50  $2.00 

.94    31-100 

16.007,706.99 

16,973,974 

1866.... 

.W    $1.50    $2.00 

1.98    56-100 

29.482.077.99 

14.847,943 

1867.... 

$1.00    $2.00 

1.99    91-100 

29.164.409.34 

14.588.740 

1868.... 

$1.00    $2.00 

1.97    81-100 

14.290,730.98 

7.224,809 

1869.... 

.50    •.60    $2.00 

.54    33-100 

33,735,323,68 

62,092.417 

1870... 

.50 

.50 

39,245,099.04 

78.490.198 

1871.... 

.50 

.50 

31,157,314.15 

62.314,628 

1872.... 

.50 

.50 

38,117,788.99 

66,235.578 

1873.... 

.50     .70 

.65    44-100 

43,131,064.78 

65.911,141 

1874.... 

.70 

.70 

43,807,093.70 

62,581,562 

1875.... 

.70     .90 

.72    76-100 

46,877,938.10 

64,425.911 

1876.... 

.70     .90 

.88    58-100 

51,390.490.43 

58,012,693 

1877. . . . 

.70     .90 

.89    97-100 

52.671.291.34 

58.543,389 

1878. . . . 

.70     .90 

.89    99-100 

45.626,533.06 

50.704,189 

1879.... 

.50     .70     .90 

.89    98-100 

47.709.464.24 

53,025,175 

1880.... 

.70     .90 

.90 

55.919.119.18 

62.132,415 

1881.... 

.70     .90 

.90 

62.214,127.56 

69,127,206 

1882.... 

.70     .90 

.90 

64.778,756.97 

71.976.398 

1883.... 

.90 

.90 

69,085,856.73 

76,762,063 

1884.... 

.90 

.90 

71,655,211.33 

79,616.901 

1885.... 

.70     .90 

.90 

62,242,221.97 

69.158,025 

1886.... 

.90 

90 

63,766,219.61 

70.851,365 

1887.... 

.90 

.90 

60,642,351.66 

67.380.391 

1888.... 

.90 

.90 

64,408,937.37 

71.565.486 

1889.... 

.90 

.90 

69,447.175.84 

77,163,529 

1890.... 

.90 

.90 

76.539.002.62 

85.043,336 

1891.... 

.90 

.90 

79.626.093.51 

88,473,437 

1892.... 

.90 

.90 

85,541.209.01 

95,045,787 

1893... 

.90 

.90 

89,231.300.05 

99,145,889 

1894... 

.90 

.90 

79.899,647.52 

88,777,387 

1895. . . . 

.90    $1.10 

.99    5-100 

74,837,396.01 

75,555.742 

1896... 

.90    $1.10 

$1.09    99-100 

75,327.897.62 

68,480.720 

1897.... 

.90    1.10 

1.09    99-100 

76,967,256.91 

69,979,362 

1898.... 

1.10 

1.10 

87.741,223.85 

79,764,749 

1899.... 

1.10 

1.10 

93,638.085.27 

85,125,532 

1900. . . . 

1.10 

1.10 

104,375,921.46 

94,887,201 

1901 .... 

1.10 

1.10 

110,854,703.40 

100.777,003 

1902.... 

1.10 

1.10 

115,285.115.90 

104,804,651 

1903.... 

1.10 

1.10 

125.862.518.08 

114,420.471 

1904.... 

1.10 

1.10 

129,564,242.49 

117,785,675 

1905.... 

1.10 

1.10 

129,512,628.19 

117,738,753 

1906.... 

1.10 

1.10 

136,965,911.49 

124,514,465 

1907.... 

1.10 

1.10 

149,749,338.63 

136,135,762 

1908.... 

1.10 

1.10 

133,626,276.45 

121,478,433 

1909.... 

1.10 

1.10 

128,315,181.45 

116,650,165 

1910... 

1.10 

1.10 

141,523.554.06 

128,657.776 

AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  91 

The  tax  on  fermented  or  malt  liquors  has  not  been 
subject  to  the  fluctuations  that  have  attended  the  busi- 
ness of  distillation;  hence  the  same  opportunities  for 
speculation  have  not  appeared.  In  the  year  i860  the 
brewing  industry  was  in  its  infancy,  comparatively, 
and  it  has  developed  to  its  present  enormous  propor- 
tions in  the  face  of  the  internal  tax  on  its  products.  In 
an  attempt  to  study  this  developmeni;,  the  significant 
fact  appears  that  the  number  of  breweries  at  present  is 
not  much  in  excess  of  the  number  in  i860.  The  brew- 
eries have  developed  enormously  in  magnitude  and 
capacity,  but  not  in  numbers.  Place  side  by  side  the 
breweries  of  i860  and  1909,  and  we  have  the  following 
record : 


Tax. 

No.  of 

Barrels 

Year. 

per  Bbl. 

Breweries. 

Produced. 

i860 

No  tax 

i,?69 

3,812,346 

1909 

$1.00 

1,622 

56,364.360 

The  vast  power  that  has  grown  up  between  the 
dates  represented  in  these  figures  is  a  story  that  can- 
not be  told  in  this  connection.  It  is  a  story  of  the  de- 
velopment of  an  organized  force  for  evil  that  has 
wormed  its  way  into  state  legislatures,  dominated 
city  councils,  dictated  to  prosecuting  attorneys,  given 
orders  to  police  departments,  furnished  sinews  of  war 
for  political  campaigns,  conducted  a  system  of  saloons 
in  the  army  for  its  own  benefit.  Its  own  arrogance  has 
proven  its  undoing  and  led  to  popular  revolt,  for,  as 
these  lines  are  written  (1910),  the  brewing  power  of  the 
nation  is  engaged  for  the  first  time  in  its  history  in  a 


92 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


general  and  desperate  contest  for  its  very  existence. 
The  following  tabulation  shows  the  fiscal  operations  of 
the  government  in  its  relations  to  the  breweries,  under 
the  War  Measure  of  1863  and  its  various  successors,  all 
providing  a  tax  on  the  manufacture  of  malt  liquors. 


RETURNS    OF    FERMENTED    LIQUORS    AND 
TAXES  THEREON  BY  FISCAL  YEARS. 


Fiscal    year    ended 
June  30. 


Rate   of   tax   at 

which  collections 

were    made. 


Aggregate    collec- 
tions for  each 
fiscal   year. 


Aggregate 

quantities    in 

barrels    for 

each    fiscal 

year. 


1863 
1864 
186s 
1866 
1867 
1868 
1869 
1870 
1871 
1872 
»873 
1874 
1875 
1876 
1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 
1882 
1883 
1884 
1 88s 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
1895 
1896 


$1.00  to  $  .60 
.60  to  I. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1.00 
1. 00 

I. GO 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1.00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1. 00 
1.00 
1.00 

1. 00 

1. 00 

1. 00 

1. 00 
1. 00 
1.00 


,558,083.41 
,223,719.73 
,657,181.06 
,115,140.49 
.819,345.49 
,685,663.70 
,866,400.98 
,081,520.54 
,159,740.20 

,009,969.72 
,910,823.83 
,880,829.68 
,743,744.62 
.159,675-95 
074.305.93 
473,360.70 
,270,352.83 
,346,077.26 
237,700.63 
680,678.54 
,426,050.11 

573,722.88 

747,006.11 
,157,612.87 
387,411.79 

829,202.90 
235,863.94 
494,798.50 
,192,327.69 
431,498.06 
962,743.15 
,834,674.01 
044,304.84 
139,141.10 


2,006,625 
3,141,381 

3,657,181 

5,115,140 
6,207,402 
6,146,663 

6,342,055 
6,574,617 

7,740,260 
8,659,427 
9,633,323 
9,600,897 
9,452,697 
9,902,352 

9,810,060 

10,241,471 
11,103,084 
13,347,111 
14,311,028 
16,952,085 
17,757,892 
18,998,619 

19,185,953 
20,710,933 
23,121,526 
24,680,219 
25,119,8?! 
27,561,944 
30,478,192 
31,817,836 
34,554,317 
33,334,783 
33,561,411 
35,826,098 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 


93 


Fiscal  year  ended 
June  30. 


1897 
1898 

1899 
1900 
1 90 1 

1902 
1903 
1904 
1905 
1906 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


Rate    of    tax    at 

which     collections 

were    made. 


1. 00 

1. 00) 

2.00) 

1. 00) 

2.00) 

2.00 

2.00 

2.00) 

1.60) 

1. 00 

I. GO 
1.00 


I. GO 
1.00 
LOG 


Aggregate    collec- 
tions  for   each 
fiscal    year. 


31,841,362.40 

38,885,151.63 

67,673,301.31 
72,762,070.56 
74,956,593-87 

71,166,711.65 
46,652,577.14 
48,208,132.56 
49,459,539-93 
54,651,636.63 
58,546,110.69 
58,747,680.14 
56,303,496.68 
59,485,116.82 


Aggregate 

quantities   in 

barrels  for 

each  fiscal 

year. 


34,423,094 

37,493,306 

36,581,114 
39,330,849 
40,517,078 

44,478,832 
46,650,730 
48,208,133 
49,459,540 
54,651,637 
58,546,111 
58,747,680 
56.303,497 
59,485,117 


Note. — Prior  to  September  i,  1866,  the  tax  on  fermented  liquors  was 
paid  in  currency,  and  the  full  amount  of  tax  was  returned  by  collectors. 
From  and  after  that  date  the  tax  was  paid  by  stamps,  on  which  a  reduction 
oi  71/2  per  cent  was  allowed  to  brewers  using  them.  The  act  of  July  24, 
1897,  repealed  the  7^/2  per  cent  discount.  The  act  of  June  13,  1898,  in- 
creased the  tax  to  $2.00  per  barrel  and  restored  the  7l4  per  cent  discount. 
The  act  of  March  2,  1901,  in  force  July  1,  1901,  provided  for  a  flat  rate  of 
$1.60  per  barrel.  The  act  of  April  12,  1902,  in  effect  July  i,  1902,  reduced 
the   tax   to  $1.00   per   barrel. 

The  collection  of  a  heavy  tax,  especially  a  tax 
from  a  class  of  people  not  suffering  from  an  over 
production  of  conscientious  scruples,  is  accompanied 
by  difficulties,  and  generally  by  extensive  fraud — at 
least,  until  the  provisions  for  such  collection  have  been 
rigidly  systematized.  Shortly  after  the  War,  frauds  in 
the  collection  of  the  internal  revenue  on  whisky  were 
developed.  These  abuses  Avere  of  the  most  extensive 
character.  Whisky  was  sold  in  the  open  market  at 
fifty  cents  per  gallon  less  than  the  tax  itself,  and 
charges  against  high  officials  were  publicly  made. 
These  frauds  attracted  the  attention  of  the  Fortieth 


94  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Congress,  to  which  Chairman  C.  H.  Van  Wyck,  of  the 
Committee  on  Retrenchment,  on  March  12,  1868,  made 
a  report*  on  the  subject.    The  report,  in  part,  stated: 

"Persons  engaged  in  other  branches  of  business,  and 
all  departments  of  industry,  paying  honestly  their  taxes,  have 
been  bewildered  in  the  contemplation  of  these  frauds.  The  whole 
people  know  that  great  crimes  were  committed,  with  the  con- 
nivance, if  not  assistance,  of  government  officials.  An  honest 
payment  of  the  tax  on  whisky  would  realize  $200,000,000, 
whereas  but  little  over  $25,000,000  is  received. 

"When  whisky  is  sold  at  $1.50  in  the  market,  does  not 
every  man  know  that  no  person  is  engaged  in  the  manufac- 
ture intending  to  pay  honestly  the  tax  of  $2  on  every  gallon." 

The  report  savagely  attacked  President  Johnson, 
"and  recommended  reducing  the  tax  on  distillation  to 
fifty  cents  per  gallon.  *'If  all  the  various  means  re- 
sorted to  by  many  modern  distillers  for  the  accomplish- 
ment of  their  designs  upon  the  revenue  could  be  truth- 
fully written,"  says  the  Report  of  the  Collector  of 
Internal  Revenue  for  1867,  (p.  20.)  "the  very  safety  of 
our  institutions  might  well  be  questioned."  The 
frauds  were  not  confined  to  the  distillers.  David  A. 
Wells,  in  a  public  address,t  while  Commissioner  of 
Internal  Revenue,  said,  "By  statistical  reports  it  has 
been  proven  that  6,000,000  barrels  of  beer  are  brewed 
annually,  while  only  2,500,000  paid  tax."  The  frauds 
continued  to  be  public  scandal  for  more  than  ten  years, 
reaching  their  culmination  in  the  pilferings  of  1873-5, 

*     Report   No.  24,  40th  Congress,  2d  Session, 
t     Official    Report,    United    States    Brewers'    Convention, 
1865. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  95 

during  which  two  years,  Commissioner  of  Internal 
Revenue,  Daniel  H.  Pratt,  stated,  the  government  had 
been  robbed  of  $4,000,000  through  the  connivance  of 
high  officials.*  The  repeated  exposures  of  these  frauds 
led  to  the  prosecution  of  several  officials  of  the  Inter- 
nal Revenue  Department.  Gen.  John  McDonald.f  Su- 
pervisor of  Internal  Revenue  for  Missouri,  Arkansas, 
Texas,  Kansas,  Indian  Territory  and  New  Mexico, 
and  two  of  his  fellow  conspirators,  were  convicted  and 
sentenced  to  terms  in  the  penitentiary.  This  had  the 
effect  of  somewhat  discouraging  the  fraudulent  prac- 
tices. 

Since  the  passage  of  the  War  Revenue  Act  of 
1862,  the  tax  on  the  production  of  beer  has  remained 
at  $1  per  barrel,  except  during  the  fiscal  year  1863-4, 
when  it  dropped  for  a  time  to  60  cents. 

The  Revenue  Act  approved  June  13,  1898,  to  meet 
the  expenses  of  the  war  with  Spain,  doubled  the  tax 
on  beer,  making  it  $2  per  barrel,  but  left  undisturbed 
the  tax  on  distilled  spirits.  The  Act  approved  April 
12,  1902,  removed  most  of  the  special  taxes  levied  to 
meet  the  expenses  of  the  war  with  Spain,  and  reduced 
the  tax  on  beer  from  $2  to  $1  per  barrel,  the  ante- 
bellum basis. 


*  Vide  "Annual  Encyclopaedia"  for  1875;  also  The 
Voice  Dec.  25,  1890,  and  Jan.  8,  19,  1891. 

t  McDonald  served  seventeen  months  in  the  penitenti- 
ary before  he  was  pardoned.  On  his  release  he  wrote  a  sen- 
sational exposure  of  the  "Secrets  of  the  Great  Whisky  Ring," 
in  which  he  implicated  many  prominent  officials  in  the  steal- 
ing. 


96  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

During  the  eighties  the  temperance  people  began 
to  oppose  the  internal  revenue  system,  for  about  the 
same  reason  that  the  liquor  dealers  favored  it.  It  had 
proved  to  be  a  bulwark  of  defense  for  the  traffic,  a 
shelter  in  time  of  need.  The  trade  being  unable  to 
defend  itself  on  its  own  merits,  found  that  it 
could  do  very  well  by  discussing  the  needs  of  the 
school  fund,  the  police  fund,  or  the  road  fund,  instead. 
The  Convention  of  the  National  W.  C.  T.  U.,  in  1887, 
sounded  the  first  important  note  of  opposition  to  the 
tax  on  liquors  in  these  words :  "We  advocate  the  ab- 
olition of  the  Internal  Revenue  on  alcoholic  liquors  and 
tobacco,  for  the  reason  that  it  operates  to  render  more 
difficult  the  securing  and  enforcement  of  Prohibitory 
laws,  and  so  postpones  the  day  of  national  deliver- 
ance." Since  this  time,  dissatisfaction  at  the  policy  of 
the  government  in  levying  a  tax  on  vice  has  gradually 
increased  among  the  friends  of  law  and  order.  This 
dissatisfaction  is  based,  not  so  much  on  the  ethics  in- 
volved in  such  a  transaction,  as  on  the  fact  that  such 
a  policy  has  proved  to  be  a  most  successful  bar  to 
progress  of  the  prohibition  movement,  and  the  exten- 
sion of  "dry"  territory. 

"Easy  money"  has  similar  allurements  to  a  nation 
that  it  has  for  an  individual.  The  citizen  who  rents 
his  properties  at  exorbitant  rates  for  saloons  or  dives 
is  both  skillful  and  diligent  in  devising  excuses  for 
continuing  the  policy;  he  is  "not  responsible  for  what 
is  done  by  someone  else;"  if  he  did  not  let  the  place 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  97 

"some  one  else  would  do  so,  and  likely  rent  quarters 
where  more  damage  would  be  done;"  the  "law  per- 
mits it,  and  it  would  be  presumptuous  to  pretend  to  be 
better  than  the  law ;"  then  the  extortionate  rents  which 
he  extracts  are  a  "burden  on  the  traffic"  and  he  believes 
in  "adding  burdens  to  evils,"  and  besides,  he  "applies 
these  rents  to  philanthropic  and  godly  purposes," 
which  some  other  landlord  might  not  do.  The  for- 
mulae are  very  similar  to  those  which  appeal  to  the 
community,  or  to  the  nation  hunting  excuses  for  shar- 
ing in  the  plunder  easily  to  be  derived  from  dabbling 
in  the  profits  of  vice.  It  is  discovered  that  it  cannot 
be  suppressed ;  that  it  can  only  be  regulated  or  held  in 
check;  that  the  tax  is  a  burden  and  should  be  increased 
rather  than  abated ;  that  the  school  fund  needs  money 
and  roads  are  out  of  repair;  at  least,  vice  should  aid 
in  paying  the  expenses  which  it  foists  upon  the  tax- 
payers. Just  as  the  individual  is  prone  to  postpone  the 
day  of  his  regeneration  in  order  that  he  may  add  a  few 
dollars  to  his  ill-scented  accumulation,  so  the  state 
hugs  the  tainted  revenue  to  her  bosom,  frantically 
hunting  excuses  and  explanations  for  continuing  the 
partnership  with  vice  and  crime  under  the  cloak  of 
"regulation,"  "vested  interests"  and  "police  require- 
ments." Mr.  Bastable,  the  distinguished  authority  on 
matters  of  taxation  and  revenue,  reaches  a  similar  con- 
clusion :  "The  whole  system,"  he  says,  "is  a  highly 
artificial  one.  By  it  the  state  draws  very  large  resour- 
ces from  the  taxation  of  what  is  an  instrument  of  lux- 
ury, in  many  cases  one  of  vice.    The  aim  of  reducing 


98  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

the  national  consumption  of  these  drinks  is  naturally- 
postponed  to  that  of  maintaining  so  material  a  support 
of  the  public  revenue,  and  the  problem  of  adjusting 
the  duties  between  the  different  classes  is  very  im- 
perfectly dealt  with."  * 

Whatever  theoretical  or  practical  advantages  may 
be  urged  as  to  a  tax  on  vice  being  a  burden,  or  means 
of  regulation,  or  an  assessment  to  aid  in  paying  the 
expenses  incurred  thereby,  the  fact  still  looms  up 
cold  and  clear  against  the  horizon  of  the  situation 
that  such  a  tax  inherently  carries  with  it  an  element 
for  its  own  protection.  As  the  average  man  revolts 
against  being  the  recipient  of  a  favor,  and  then  kick- 
ing the  one  who  gave  it,  so  "the  average  community  is 
not  inclined  to  receive  money  from  a  traffic  for  public 
purposes  one  day,  and  destroy  the  same  business  on 
the  morrow.  Just  as  a  man  who  takes  a  bribe  dislikes 
to  ''squeal,"  so  the  community  which  sells  the 
right  to  defile  and  pollute  a  neighborhood  is  more  in- 
clined to  endure  things  and  explain  away  transactions, 
than  it  is  to  abate  the  nuisance.  It  is  readily  admitted 
that  the  tax  on  vice  is  a  "burden,"  but  so  is  the  bribe 
money  given  to  a  policeman  a  "burden."  As  the  one 
burden  involves  the  officer  in  a  sort  of  thieves'  moral- 
ity obligation  to  tolerate  the  law-breaking  of  the  donor 
of  the  bribe  money,  just  so  the  other  burden  fastens 
upon  the  community  a  sort  of  moral  or  immoral  obliga- 
tion to  tolerate  the  licensed  nuisance. 

*     Bastable:     Public  Finance,  p.  485. 


The  Revenue  Aftermath. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

Just  as  indulgence  in  alcoholic  beverages  creates 
a  headache  for  the  individual,  so  any  system  of  tax- 
ation, license  or  regulation  of  a  vice  begets  complex 
questions,  situations  and  problems.  These  are  arti- 
ficial questions  grov^ing  out  of  such  a  system,  and  for 
this  very  reason  they  have  not  had  the  serious  atten- 
tion of  those  specially  interested  in  solving  the  drink 
problem.  The  relation  of  the  state  toward  vice  and 
crime  is  now  entering  upon  an  era  of  scientific  treat- 
ment. The  almost  superhuman  appeals  of  Father 
Mathew,  the  bewildering  portrayals  of  John  B.  Gough, 
the  biting  sarcasms  of  John  Adams,  the  persistent 
teachings  of  Dr.  Benjamin  Rush  and  Lyman  Beecher, 
the  organizing  power  of  John  Marsh,  the  eloquence  of 
Tom  Marshal,  the  physiological  charts  of  Dr.  Thomas 
Sewell,  have  all  had  their  day  and  their  uses.  Each 
has  had  its  achievements,  and  fulfilled  its  mission. 
These  are  now  of  the  past,  and  the  state  is  face  to 
face  with  the  problem  of  its  own  course.  In  its  at- 
tempts to  grapple  with,  to  evade,  to  compromise,  to 
harness  the  powers  of  vice  for  revenue  purposes,  the 
state  has  groped,  stumbled,  multiplied  blunders,  while 


loo         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

accumulating  special  situations  and  complications. 
Some  of  these,  while  properly  and  directly  offshoots 
of  our  revenue  system,  are  of  such  a  character  that  it 
seems  best  to  consider  them  in  a  separate  chap- 
ter. Such  questions  as  bonded  warehouses,  fortifica- 
tion, adulteration,  denatured  alcohol,  and  the  relation 
of  retail  druggists  to  the  traffic,  will  be  discussed  in 
the  order  named. 

Every  lawful  distiller  must  provide  a  warehouse 
at  his  own  expense,  constructed  as  the  government 
requires,  and  then  place  it  in  charge  of  representatives 
of  the  Collector  of  Internal  Revenue  for  the  district. 
The  owner  cannot  even  go  into  his  own  warehouse 
except  the  government  representative  be  present;  he 
cannot  take  anything  out,  or  put  anything  into  it  with- 
out the  written  consent  of  the  government.  The  gov- 
ernment carries  a  key  to  the  establishment,  and  its 
representatives  can  go  in  by  night  or  day  without 
asking.  If  the  distiller  objects,  the  revenue  officer  is 
authorized  to  break  in,  and  then  fine  the  distiller  up 
to  $i,ooo  for  interfering.  The  distiller  must  even  fur- 
nish the  inspectors  with  ladders  to  climb  up  into  vari- 
ous parts  of  the  building,  and  tools  to  open  casks  or 
anything  else  deemed  necessary.  If  the  inspector  sus- 
pects secret  pipes  to  or  from  the  warehouse,  he  is 
authorized  to  dig  up  the  premises  till  satisfied.  All 
these  provisions  and  more  were  provided  in  the  reve- 
nue act  of  July  20,  1868,  and  have  since  been  sustained 
by  the  courts,  amplified  and  perfected  by  Congress. 
Personal  liberty  has  never  had  any  standing  whatever 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  loi 

when  a  matter  of  securing  the  collection  of  a  few  dolv 
lars  for  public  purposes  was  concerned.  It  is  only 
when  the  privilege  of  debauching  a  weak  individual, 
or  when  the  license  to  cheat  a  helpless  child  out  of  its 
bread-winner's  wages  is  concerned,  that  the  cry  of 
"personal  liberty"  is  echoed  from  Hell  Gate  in  New 
York  to  Chinatown  in  San  Francisco.  The  purpose  of 
the  bonded  warehouses  is  to  facilitate  the  transaction 
of  the  business,  both  from  the  standpoint  of  the  dis- 
tiller and  of  the  government.  It  has  also  the  purpose 
of  providing  a  place  of  deposit  for  the  distilled  spirits 
during  the  period  of  aging,  and  until  the  distiller 
wishes  to  market  the  spirits.  The  distiller  pays  the 
revenue  tax  when  he  withdraws  his  product  from  the 
warehouse,  and  from  the  custody  of  the  government. 

In  the  beginning,  the  bonded  period  was  but  one 
year.  At  the  end  of  this  time  the  distiller  was  com- 
pelled to  pay  the  tax.  On  March  28,  1879,  Congress, 
at  the  urgent  request  of  the  distillers,  extended  the 
bonding  period  to  three  years.  The  extending  of  the 
bonded  period,  which  was  equivalent  to  the  extension 
of  the  time  for  payment  of  taxes  to  three  years,  led 
to  a  serious  overproduction  of  spirits,  and  the  distill- 
ers found  themselves  face  to  face  with  a  grave  situa- 
tion. They  saw  the  bonding  period  drawing  to  a 
close  with  enormous  quantities  of  surplus  spirits  on 
hand  on  which  the  tax  must  be  paid.  Bankruptcy 
stared  many  of  the  weaker  firms  in  the  face,  and 
strong  pressure  was  brought  to  bear  on  Congress  to 


?  ?  '^  *^  *• «  « 


I02    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

remit  hundreds  of  thousands  of  dollars  of  those  taxes. 
Congress,  always  sensitive  about  matters  of  revenue, 
refused.  In  1881,  Secretary  Windom  also  refused  to 
stretch  his  authority  to  help  the  distillers  out  of  their 
trouble.  Windom  was  execrated  in  every  distillery  in 
the  nation  for  his  stand.  The  Internal  Revenue  Bu- 
reau, however,  did  what  it  could  to  assist  the  stricken 
manufacturers.  On  February  13,  1882,  John  G.  Car- 
lisle introduced  into  the  House  of  Representatives  a 
bill  to  extend  the  bonding  period  of  spirits,  and  to  this 
measure  the  Internal  Revenue  Bureau  lent  the  whole 
weight  of  its  influence.  In  a  report  to  Congress,  * 
dated  April  3,  1882,  Green  B.  Raum,  Commissioner  of 
Internal  Revenue,  recommending  the  passage  of  Car- 
lisle's bill,  said :  "If  the  manufacturers  and  owners  are 
required  to  pay  the  taxes  within  three  years,  I  would 
expect  to  see  such  a  decline  in  prices  as  would  serious- 
ly embarrass  many  strong  firms,  probably  cause  many 
failures  and  unavoidably  affect  other  branches  of  busi- 
ness without  any  beneficial  results  to  the  govern- 
ment." Congress,  however,  having  in  mind  the  whole- 
sale frauds  and  stealings  of  the  distillers  under  the 
law  as  it  stood,  was  in  no  mood  to  listen  to  the  plead- 
ing of  the  culprits  already  swelled  with  the  loot  of 
twenty  years  of  manipulation. 

What  Congress  refused,  however,  was  later  prac- 
tically accomplished  by  a  ruling  of  Hugh  McCullough, 


*     House  Report  No.  1277,  Forty-seventh  Congress,  First 
Session. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  103 

Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  This  ruling,  dated  Janu- 
ary 6,  1885,  extended  the  bonding  period  for  seven 
months.  At  the  same  time  he  requested  Congress  to 
extend  the  bonding  period  indefinitely,  saying: 

'The  manufacture  of  whisky  is  one  of  the  largest  and 
most  important  branches  of  domestic  industry  in  the  United 
States,  and  is  at  the  present  time,  like  other  manufacturing 
interests,  greatly  suffering  from  over-production.  A  legiti- 
mate business,  from  which  large  revenues  are  derived,  it  is 
not  only  depressed  by  over-production,  but  by  being  burdened 
by  heavy  taxes,  the  payment  of  which,  as  is  the  case  with  no 
other  article,  is  required  within  a  fixed  period  whatever  may 

be  the  condition  of  the  market Under  existing  laws  the 

manufacturers  or  holders  of  whisky  are  compelled  to  pay  a 
tax  amounting  to  nearly  five  times  its  cost  on  the  article 
before  it  is  withdrawn  from  the  warehouse  for  consumption, 
or  to  export  at  great  expense,  to  be  held  in  foreign  countries 
until  there  is  a  home  demand  for  it,  or  to  be  sold  in  such 
countries  to  the  prejudice  of  our  public  revenues." 

Congress  finally  relented,  and  extended  various 
privileges  to  distillers,  including  the  right  to  ''bottle 
in  bond"  (Act  of  March  3,  1897.)  The  Act  of  August 
2'j,  1894,  extended  the  bonding  period  to  eight  years, 
and  the  business  of  manufacturing  spirits  was  finally 
established  upon  a  basis  entirely  satisfactory  to  the 
distilling  interests. 

The  process  known  as  "fortifying"  wine  is  the  add- 
ing of  alcohol  in  some  form  for  the  purpose  of  increas- 
ing its  intoxicating  qualities.  Alcohol  was  formerly 
added  to  apple  cider  to  "prevent  acidification."  Nom- 
inally, this  process  was  to  prepare  wines  and  cider  for 
export  to  tropical   countries.     But  the  people   devel- 


104         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

oped  a  taste  for  ''strong  wine,"  so  that  now  practically 
all  of  the  wines  consumed  in  the  United  States,  save 
a  few  varieties  like  claret,  are  heavily  "fortified."  A 
glimpse  of  the  situation  as  to  "imitation"  wines  and 
fortified  goods  is  to  be  found  in  a  report  of  the  "Uni- 
ted States  Revenue  Commission  on  Spirits  as  a 
source  of  Revenue."  This  report,  *  prepared  by  Da- 
vid A.  Wells,  said : 

"For  'the  manufacture   of   imitation   wines'   the   demand 
for    distilled    spirits    has    also,    heretofore,   been    very   large; 
four  firms  in  the  city  of  New  York  having  reported  to  the 
Commission  a  consumption  of  225,000  gallons  of  pure  spirits 
for  this  purpose  during  the  year  1863,     Large  quantities  of 
,  neutral,  or  pure  spirits  have  also  heretofore  been  used  in  the 
.  United  States  for  the  fortifying  of  cider  to  prevent  or  retard 
acidification,  especially  for  cider  intended  for  export  to  trop- 
'    ical  countries,  to  the  Southern  states,  or  to  the  Pacific  coast. 
One  distiller  in  Western  New  York  reports  to  the  Commis- 
sion a  regular  sale,  during  the  year  1862,  of  eight  thousand 
gallons  of  proof  spirits  per  month  for  this  purpose." 

This  report  indicated  the  tendency  of  this  sort  of 
business  at  the  time  that  the  war  tax  on  spirits  was 
enacted  in  1862.  This  tax  was  levied  indiscriminately 
on  all  spirits,  and  it  came  to  pass  that  the  purchasing 
of  alcohol  at  about  $2.50  to  $2.90  per  gallon,  for  the 
purpose  of  adulterating  or  fortifying  wine  that  cost 
but  a  few  cents  per  gallon,  was  an  expensive,  money- 
losing  proposition.  During  the  era  of  frauds,  late  in 
the  sixties  and  early  in  the  seventies,  the  wine  makers 

• 
*     Executive   Document   No.  62,  Thirty-ninth   Congress, 
First  Session. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  105 

got  along  very  well  by  corrupting  Federal  Revenue 
officers,  and  thus  getting  alcohol  or  brandy  without 
paying  the  whole  duty.  But  the  gradual  purification 
of  the  Revenue  service  made  this  more  and  more  diffi- 
cult. Foreign  countries  shipped  large  quantities  of 
fortified  wine  into  the  American  market,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  the  American  wine  business.  At  length  Con- 
gress was  frantically  appealed  to  by  California  wine 
makers  to  come  to  the  rescue  of  their  "infant  indus- 
try." This  appeal  was  so  successful  that,  in  1890,  a 
law  was  passed  by  Congress  *  allowing  wine  spirits, 
or  grape  brandy,  tax  free,  for  the  purpose  of  fortifying 
sweet  wines,  in  amounts  necessary  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  saccharine  matter  contained  therein.  This 
fortification  was  to  be  done  under  the  direct  supervis- 
ion of  the  Internal  Revenue  Department,  and  accord- 
ing to  regulations  issued  by  that  office.  The  Act  of 
1890  limited  the  proportion  of  alcohol  to  be  injected 
into  the  sweet  wines  to  14  per  cent  and  in  no  event 
was  the  fortified  wine  to  exceed  24  per  cent  in  alcohol- 
ic strength.  Prior  to  the  passage  of  this  act,  it  cost 
the  wine  maker  about  53  cents  in  tax  alone  on  the  al- 
cohol necessary  to  fortify  one  gallon  of  wine. 

The  business  of  fortifying  wines  at  once  began  to 
grow  by  leaps  and  bounds  under  the  stimulus,  and  for- 
tified wines  began  to  crowd  "light"  wines  out  of  the 
market.     The  development  of  this  industry  can  best 

*  Act  of  October  i.  Some  minor  amendments  were 
added  August  28,  1894. 


io6 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


be  told  by  a  tabulation,  compiled  from  the  annual  re- 
ports of  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  show- 
ing the  brandy  used  for  fortification  and  the  amount 
of  wine  manufactured  by  this  process. 


Brandy 

Fortified 

Brandy 

Fortified 

Fiscal 

Used 

Wines  pro- 

Fiscal 

Used 

Wines  pro- 

Year. 

(Taxable 

duced.    (Wine 

Year. 

(Taxable 

duced.   (Wine 

Gallons). 

Gallons). 

Gallons). 

Gallons). 

1891 

193,557 

1,083,274 

1901 

2,236,672 

9,725,047 

1892 

695,844 

2,746,65s 

1902 

2,408,310 

9,880,053 

1893 

619,811 

2,651,187 

1903 

4,170,365 

16,927,860 

1894 

1,114,515 

4,731,050 

1904 

3,473,446 

14,264,718 

1895 

1,047,001 

4,377,230 

1905 

3,430,819 

13,990,05s 

1896 

1,527,692 

6,230,562 

1906 

3,123,748 

12,077,573 

1897 

1,216,480 

5,162,392 

1907 

4,090,774 

16,241,900 

1898 

1,754,509 

7,319,329 

1908 

4,380,016 

17,119,261 

1899 

1,912,339 

8,045,052 

1909 

3,814,129 

14,945,871 

1900 

2,137,067 

8,815,441 

1910 

4,888,445 

19,012,397 

It  soon  developed  that  it  cost  the  government 
from  $25,000  to  $30,000  per  year  in  expense  for  super- 
vision, in  order  to  extend  this  tax  free  fortification 
privilege  to  the  California  wine  makers.  Attention 
was  called  to  this  in  the  Annual  Report  of  the  Com- 
missioner of  Internal  Revenue  for  the  year  1904,  and 
a  recommendation  was  made  that  a  tax  of  25  cents  per 
gallon  be  levied  on  brandy  used  for  fortifying  pur- 
poses, to  cover  the  cost  of  administration.  Commis- 
sioner John  W.  Yerkes  repeated  this  recommendation 
in  his  report  for  1905,  and  stated  that  this  cost  of  ad- 
ministration would  reach  $50,000  during  the  coming 
year.  No  attention  was  paid  to  the  recommendation 
until  a  new  factor  appeared.  The  agitation  for  free 
alcohol,  denatured  for  manufacturing  purposes,  had 
begun  to  assume  formidable  proportions,  and  legiti- 
mate manufacturers,  who  promoted  the  measure,  were 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  107 

loudly  calling  attention  to  the  free  grape  brandy  for 
fortifying  purposes  as  a  precedent.  They  urged  that 
free  alcohol  for  legitimate  manufacturing  purposes 
was  a  more  commendable  proposition  than  was  free 
grape  brandy  for  saloon  purposes.  This  clamor  of  the 
manufacturers  alarmed  the  wine  men,  representatives 
of  whose  organization  hurried  to  Washington,  where 
they  asked  the  privilege  of  paying  a  tax  of  three  cents 
per  gallon  on  brandy  used  in  fortifying  wines,  which 
three  cents  was  designed  to  cover  the  cost  of  admin- 
istration. Such  an  act  was  passed  by  Congress,  and 
approved  June  7,  1906.* 

But  in  securing  this  privilege  of  paying  their  three 
cents  per  gallon  tax,  and  thus  escaping  the  probable 
infliction  of  much  heavier  excise,  the  wine  men  se- 
cured another  item  of  legislation  which  they  really 
coveted.  The  injection  of  so  large  a  percentage  of 
spirits  into  wine  for  fortifying  purposes  gave  the  pro- 
duct a  strong  alcoholic  flavor,  somewhat  at  variance 
with  the  soft  aroma  of  genuine  wines.  It  was  neces- 
sary to  counteract  this  by  the  addition  of  another  adul- 
terant. The  Act  of  June  7,  1906,  in  addition  to  provid- 
ing the  tax  for  administrative  purposes,  amended  the 

*     The  collections  from  this  source  since  the  passage  of 
the  law  have  been  as  follows: 
Fiscal  Year.  Collections. 

1907    $121,596.00 

1908    _ .-. .      130,880.00 

1909    1 15,876.00 

1910 145,697.25 


io8         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

previous  legislation  so  as  to  allow  the  use  of  sugar  and 
water  up  to  ten  per  cent.  The  effect  of  this  was  to  re- 
move the  sharp  edge  of  the  added  alcohol  used  in  for- 
tifying. This  ten  per  cent  of  water  and  sugar,  togeth- 
er with  the  14  per  cent  of  brandy  for  fortifying  pur- 
poses, makes  a  total  of  24  per  cent  of  adulteration  spe- 
cifically provided  by  law  for  American  wines.  * 

*  '  European  wine  countries  generally  have  laws  regard- 
ing fortification  of  wine,  chiefly  allowing  fortification  for  the 
foreign  markets.  Swiss  wines  contain  from  seven  to  twelve 
per  cent  of  alcohol,  and  are  rarely  fortified  to  bring  the  per- 
centage higher  than  fifteen  per  cent.  Fortification  of  wines  is 
allowed,  but  they  must  not  be  sold  under  false  pretenses. 
Wines  are  inspected  by  the  regular  food  inspectors. 

Italy  has  no  legislation  regarding  fortification  of  wines, 
and  fortification  is  allowed  so  long  as  the  product  is  whole- 
some. There  are  penal  laws  regulating  the  adulteration  of  food 
products. 

In  France,  the  law  of  1864  allowed  fortification  of  wine 
in  certain  exporting  ports  on  the  Mediterranean  coast.  The 
law  of  July  24,  1894,  repealed  the  Act  of  1864,  and  absolutely 
forbids  fortification,  or  "vinage."  Exception,  however,  is 
made  so  far  as  concerns  wines  intended  for  exportation,  liq- 
uor wines  and  vermouth.  These  are  provided  for  under  spe- 
cial regulations.  Alcohol  intended  for  "vinage"  of  wines  meant 
for  exportation  is  subject  to  the  same  duties  as  any  other 
alcohols.  Moreover,  fortified  wines  which  show  an  alcoholic 
strength  higher  than  fifteen  per  cent  are  subject  to  a  double 
duty  on  the  quantity  of  alcohol  contained  up  to  21  degrees. 
Beyond  21  degrees  they  are  liable  to  pay  the  duty  on  pure 
alcohol  for  their  total  volume.  (Article  3,  Law  of  September 
I,  1871).  Exception,  however,  is  made  for  wine  known  to  con- 
tain alcoholic  strength  of  between  fifteen  and  eighteen   de- 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  109 

The  adulteration  injected  into  the  same  wines 
without  specific  authorization  of  law  is  another,  and 
more  intricate,  topic — one  which  has  been  a  subject 
of  concern  and  legislation  since  the  days  of  the  Roman 
Empire.  *    For  two  thousand  years  moral  suasion,  law, 


grees,  provided  the  grower  and  shipper  mention  this  fact. 

In  Spain  the  laws  forbid  the  sale  of  wine  containing  more 
than  twelve  per  cent  of  alcohol.  Alcohol  and  all  liquors  are 
subject  to  tax.  The  wines  which  these  countries  ship  into  the 
American  market  are  practically  all  heavily  fortified  for  the 
American  taste,  while  the  wines  used  for  home  consumption 
are  almost  wholly,  under  the  operation  of  their  laws,  unforti- 
fied. Consequently  they  contain  only  about  half  the  percent- 
age of  the  alcohol  in  their  wines  intended  for  export.  This 
fact,  in  part,  accounts  for  the  lesser  amount  of  drunkenness 
arising  from  the  use  of  wine  by  these  people  as  compared 
with  the  United  States  and  other  countries,  where  heavily 
fortified  wines  are  drunk. 

The  laws  of  Russia  forbid  the  fortification  of  wines  im- 
ported from  foreign  countries  (Excise  law,  May  23,  1900) 
but  permits  the  fortification  of  wines  of  Russian  production. 
For  this  purpose  the  excise  department  allows  brandy  tax 
free  for  the  purpose  of  fortifying  wines  up  to  an  alcoholic 
strength  of  16  per  cent. 

*  Columella,  the  Roman  writer  on  agriculture,  relates  the 
practice  of  mixing  in  a  specific  quantity  of  must  (unfermented 
wine)  ten  Sextari  of  liquid  Nemeturican  pitch,  which  had  been 
boiled  in  sea  water,  to  which  was  added  a  pound  and  a  half 
of  turpentine  resin.  This  liquid  was  allowed  to  evaporate  to 
two-thirds  its  bulk,  when  there  was  added  six  pounds  of 
crude  pitch,  with  such  aromatic  herbs  as  spikenard,  myrrh, 
saffron,  cassia,  etc.  This  treatment  was  supposed  to  help  in 
the  "fining"  of  wines,  for  the  same  purpose  as  sulphur  is  used 
today.  This  use  of  sulphur  was  also  known  to  the  ancients. 
Pliny  (De  Re  Rustica,  c.  113)  specifies  sulphur  as  one  of  the 
substances  used  by  Cato  to  "fine"  his  wines. 


no         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

religion  and  regulation  have  failed  to  eradicate  the  pol- 
icy of  liquor  makers  of  adulterating  their  wares.  Eith- 
er the  Romans  or  Normans  introduced  the  art  into 
England.  As  early  as  the  reign  of  Edward  III  (1327- 
1377)  officers  were  appointed  to  inspect  wines. 

All  imported  wines  were  inspected  twice  a  year, 
and  those  which  had  been  tampered  with  were  de- 
stroyed. People  having  adulterated  wines  on  their 
premises  were  sent  to  the  pillory.  In  1428  John  Ran- 
well,  Mayor  of  London,  ordered  adulterated  wines 
seized  and  poured  into  the  streets.  In  1432  Henry  VI 
was  presented  with  a  petition  praying  for  relief  from 
these  wine  doctors.  The  Sixth  Parliament,  during  the 
reign  of  Mary  I  (i 553-1 558),  was  invoked  to  legislate 
in  the  following  terms : 

"And  besyde  the  samin,  sic  wynis  as  are  sould  in  com- 
mon tavernis  ar  commonnlie  be  all  tavernaris  mixt  with  auld 
corrupt  winnis  and  with  water,  to  the  greit  appeirant  danger 
and  seikness  of  the  byaris,  and  great  perrill  of  the  saulis  of 
the  sellaris." 

Legislation  was  passed,  but  the  evil  continued. 
During  the  reign  of  Charles  II  (1660-1685),  when  al- 
most every  form  of  corruption  that  brought  revenue 
was  licensed,  Parliament  passed  a  stringent  law  * 
against  adulterated  liquors.  The  early  German  laws 
proscribed  adulteration  with  lime,  gypsum,f  sulphur 
or  milk,  but  failed  to  outlaw  adulteration  with  lead. 


*     I2th  Car.  11.  c.  25,  Section  11. 

t     Gypsum   is  much  used  today  in   the  manufacture   of 
sherry. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  iii 

In  1696  France    prohibited    certain    adulterations    of 
wine.* 

As  a  matter  of  courtesy,  adulteration  of  modern 
wines  is  usually  referred  to  as  "blending,"  in  which 
process  different  wines  are  manipulated,  fortified,  col- 
ored and  otherwise  treated.  Lord  Lytton,  when  Sec- 
retary of  the  British  Legation  at  L'isbon,  reported 
that  *'all  port  wines  intended  for  the  English  market 
are  composed  almost  quite  as  much  of  elderberries  as 
grapes."  The  Agricultural  Council  of  the  Pyrenees 
Orientales  drew  the  attention  of  the  French  Minister 
of  Commerce  to  the  fact  that  wines  imported  from 
Spain  were  colored  with  extract  of  elderberries.  A 
distinguished  authorityf  says  that  the  color  of  certain 
port  wines  is  due  to  the  addition  of  a  compound  made 
of  one-third  spirits,  plus  two-thirds  unfermented  grape 
juice,  in  which  are  steeped  the  skins  of  dried  elder- 
berries. Another  standard  authority^  states  that  this 
high  coloring  of  port  wine  is  brought  about  by  the  use 
of  such  coloring  matters  as  elderberry,  whortleberry, 
privet,  beet-root,  tournesol,  log-wood,  Brazil-wood,  etc. 
Henderson  w^as  doubtless  in  error  as  to  the  use  of  log- 
wood, as  it  has  since  been  proven  that  log-wood  yields 
this  rich  color  only  in  alkaline  solution.  The  use  of 
the  elderberry  skins  for  the  adulteration  of  port  wine 

*     Henderson;    History  of  Ancient  and  Modern  Wines, 

p.  339. 

t     Vizetelly;    Facts  about  Port  and  Madeira,  p.  142. 
t     Henderson;    History  of  Ancient  and   Modern   Wines, 
p.  341- 


112    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

is  now  practically  extinct,  for  the  reason  that  the  elder 
tree  has  been  extirpated  from  the  Alto  Douro  districts, 
whence  comes  port  wine.  Poke  weed  (Phytolacca  de- 
candra)  is  now  largely  used,  as  a  substitute  for  elder- 
berry skins,  for  coloring  port  wine.  Alcohol  has  been 
used  for  fortifying  port  wine  since  early  in  the  eigh- 
teenth century.  A  standard  Portuguese  work  on 
wines*  states  that  the  addition  of  a  half  a  canada  of 
brandy  to  every  pipe  of  wine  greatly  improves  it. 
Mulhall,  in  his  table  of  percentages  of  alcohol  in  vari- 
ous liquors  (1886),  gives  the  proportion  of  spirits  in 
port  wine  at  23.2  per  cent,  which  is  10  per  cent  greater 
than  it  is  possible  to  produce  through  any  process  of 
fermentation.  Among  the  substances  used  in  adulter- 
ating wines  are :  aloes,  alum,  ambergris,  acetic  acid, 
acetic  ether,  benzine,  brimstone,  bitter  almonds,  bi- 
carbonate of  potassium,  bisulphate  of  potassium,  Bra- 
zil wood,  creosote,  charcoal,  chalk,  copperas,  catechu, 
cudbear,  cochineal,  caustic  potash,  cognac  oil,  cocculus 
indicus,  elderberry,  essence  of  absinthe,  foxglove,  fu- 
sel oil,  glue,  glycerine,  gypsum,  henbane,  harthorn  shav- 
ings, indigo,  juniper  berries,  lime,  logwood,  litharge, 
marble  dust,  muriatic  acid,  mountain  ash  berries,  nut- 
galls,  opium,  oak  bark,  plaster  of  Paris,  prussic  acid, 
quassia,  red  saunders-wood,  red  beet-root,  strychnine, 
sloe  leaves,  spermaceti,  star  anise,  sulphuric  acid,  sug- 
ar of  lead,  tansy,  turmeric,  tannic  acid  and  wormwood. 
The  district  in  which  port  wine  can  be  produced  com- 

*     Agricultura  das  Vinhas,  p.  146.  u 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  113 

prises  only  about  one  hundred  and  fifty  square  miles, 
and  during  a  long  series  of  years  the  "port  wine"  im- 
ported into  England  alone  has  been  enormously  in  ex- 
cess of  all  the  port  wine  that  is,  or  can  be,  produced.  * 
As  early  as  the  seventeenth  century  the  scandal  re- 
garding adulterated  port  wine  became  so  great  that 
the  Portuguese  government  gave  a  monopoly  of  the 
traffic  in  these  wines  to  the  Chartered  Wine  Company 
of  Oporto,  a  company  of  philanthropists  who  under- 
took to  produce  and  sell  only  "pure  port  wines,"  and 
conduct  the  traffic  on  a  "high  moral  basis."  The  phil- 
anthropists, however,  in  order  to  meet  the  demand  for 
"pure  port  wine,"  soon  began  launching  upon  the 
market  bogus  wines  themselves,  and  eventually  the 
corporation  went  to  pieces. 

The  adulteration  of  beer  has  been  the  subject  of 
various  inquiries  by  the  British  Parliament,  but  until 
recent  years  the  adulteration  of  liquors  has  had  but 
little  attention  in  the  United  States.  In  1890  the 
House  of  Representatives  considered  the  Turner  Bill, 
a  proposal  to  prevent  adulteration  of  beer.  This  v\  as 
defeated  by  the  brewing  interests,  which  wished  to 
"avail  itself  of  the  discoveries  of  science."     In   1899 


*  Owing  to  the  richness  of  taste  and  color,  port  wine  has 
been  very  popular  for  ecclesiastical  purposes  among  the  few 
religious  bodies  which  still  use  fermented  wine  for  commun- 
ion purposes.  A  little  investigation  of  the  character  of  the 
port  wine  of  commerce  would  doubtless  lead  such  bodies  to 
adopt  for  communion  purposes  a  wine  that  was  at  least  made 
out  of  grapes. 


114    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

the  Senate  authorized  the  Committee  on  Manufactures 
"to  conduct  a  recess  investigation  on  the  subject  of 
food  adulteration  in  the  United  States."  The  investi- 
gations led  the  committee,  chiefly,  into  the  adultera- 
tion of  v^hisky,  in  which  it  was  developed  that  most 
of  the  whisky  on  the  American  market  was  either 
"doctored,"  or  absolutely  bogus.  The  most  common 
method  of  manufacturing  whisky  was  by  the  use  of 
Cologne  spirits,  or  neutral  spirits  as  a  base,  and  the 
addition  of  burnt  sugar,  ethers  of  the  organic  acids, 
and  an  essential  oil  to  give  it  the  proper  bead.  The 
investigation  by  this  committee,  and  the  correspond- 
ing labors  in  the  House,  led  to  the  introduction  of  bills 
on  the  subject,  but  Congress  was  so  bewildered  with 
the  problem  that  it  only  passed  a  law  regulating  the 
adulteration  of  butter.  The  Fifty-Seventh  Congress 
did  better,  and  considered  "An  act  for  preventing  the 
adulteration,  misbranding  and  imitation  of  food,  bever- 
ages," etc.  The  Senate  Committee  in  its  report  ac- 
companying the  bill  stated  that  "almost  any  brand 
of  wine  can  be  drawn  from  the  same  tank,  and  priced 
in  the  market  according  to  the  value  of  the  wine  it  is 
colored  to  imitate."  This  agitation  for  a  pure  food  law 
was  initiated  by  the  National  Pure  Food  and  Drug 
Congress  which  met  in  Washington  in  1899  and  1900. 
Representatives  of  this  organization  kept  up  the  agi- 
tation, which  finally  resulted  in  the  passage  by  Con- 
gress of  the  law  approved  June  30,  1906,  "An  act  for 
preventing  the  manufacture,  sale,  or  transportation  of 
adulterated  or  misbranded  or  poisonous  or  deleterious 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  115 

foods,  drugs,  medicines,  and  liquors."  Regulations 
(Circular  No.  21.)  were  promulgated  October  17,  1906, 
to  carry  out  the  provisions  of  this  act.  * 

The  use  of  alcohol  for  industrial  purposes  is  an- 
other problem  which  was  developed  by  the  artificial 
system  of  an  internal  revenue  tax.  Manifestly,  a  le- 
gitimate industry  is  unable  to  pay  a  tax  of  $2  upon  an 
article  the  original  cost  of  which  ranges  from  ten  to 
twenty  cents.  The  tax  of  $1.10  on  proof  spirits 
'amounts  to  a  tax  of  about  $2.09  on  commercial  alcohol, 
that  product  consisting  of  about  95  per  cent  of  pure 
alcohol,  and  five  per  cent  water.  At  the  time  of  the 
breaking  out  of  the  Civil  War  the  industrial  use  of 
alcohol  was  in  its  infancy,  and  the  levying  of  this  tax 
upon  the  spirits  while  not  interfering,  apparently,  with 
the  beverage  traffic,  practically  wiped  out  the  use  of 
alcohol  in  the  industries.  The  infliction  of  this  tariff 
created  an  urgent  demand  for  a  substitute  for  alcohol 
for  manufacturing  purposes.  Mineral  naphtha  was 
used,  chiefly,  for  a  time.  Finally,  a  method  was  dis- 
covered by  which  wood  naphtha  could  be  cheaply  rec- 
tified, the  product  being  methyl  alcohol,  commercially 
known  as  wood  alcohol.  Wood  naphtha  had  been  for- 
merly a  mere  by-product  of  the  manufacture  of  char- 
coal. Having  no  commercial  value,  it  had  escaped  tax- 
ation under  the  war  tax  of  1862.     Subsequently,  for 

*  These  regulations  were  approved  by  Leslie  M.  Shaw, 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury;  James  Wilson,  Secretary  of  Agri- 
culture; and  Victor  H.  Metcalf,  Secretary  of  Commerce  and 
Labor. 


ii6         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

special  purposes,  the  chemists  devised  methods  for  the 
more  perfect  rectification  of  wood  naphtha,  these  pro- 
ducts being  known  as  ''Columbian  Spirits,"  "Eagle 
Spirits,"  and  **Lion  D'Or,"  the  latter  being  the  highest 
product  of  that  class.  By  taste  or  smell  it  could  not  be 
distinguished  from  ethyl,  or  grain  alcohol.  But  to 
produce  even  commercial  wood  alcohol  cost  two  or 
three  times  as  much  as  the  cost  of  manufacturing  grain 
alcohol. 

Late  in  the  eighties  certain  manufacturing  inter- 
ests conducted  an  agitation  for  the  removal  of  the  tax 
upon  alcohol  for  commercial  purposes.  This  agitation 
was  conducted  chiefly  by  large  manufacturers  of  pat- 
ent medicines,  many  of  which  were  spirituous  prepara- 
tions, used  for  beverage  purposes.  The  proposal  to 
remove  the  tax  on  alcohol  for  commercial  purposes 
was  so  drafted  as  to  turn  loose  upon  the  market  tax- 
irte  alcohol  for  these  medicines.  Such  a  proposal  nat- 
urally created  much  opposition,  and  the  attempt  failed. 
Prior  to  the  Spanish  War  legitimate  manufacturers 
banded  themselves  together  to  secure  tax-free  alcohol 
for  useful  and  necessary  manufacturing  purposes.  The 
breaking  out  of  the  war  with  Spain,  however,  caused 
the  temporary  abandonment  of  this  agitation.  It  was 
renewed  with  great  vigor  in  1895.  This  time  the  pro- 
posal was  placed  upon  the  same  basis  as  that  on  which 
tax-free  alcohol  rests  in  Germany,  France  and  Eng- 
land. The  release  from  taxation  was  asked  only  on  al- 
cohol which  had  been  denatured,  or  so  chemically 
treated  as  to  unfit  it  for  beverage  purposes.    This  agi- 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  117 

tation  resulted  in  the  Act  of  Congress  approved  June  7, 
1906,  which  provides  for  the  withdrawal  from  bond, 
tax-free,  of  domestic  alcohol,  when  rendered  unfit  for 
beverage,  or  internal  medicinal  uses,  by  the  admixture 
of  suitable  denaturing  material.* 

Regulations  of  an  elaborate  character  were  pub- 
lished and  approved  September  29,  1906.  Two  classes 
of  denatured  alcohol  were  provided  for;  the  first  styled 
'^completely  denatured,"  intended  for  general  use,  and 
without  limiting  regulations  as  against  the  private  con- 
sumer. The  second  class,  or  "specially  denatured"  al- 
cohol, was  provided  for  the  needs  of  certain  manufac- 
turing interests,  for  whose  uses  the  completely  dena- 
tured alcohol  was  unfitted.  Such  alcohol  could  be  used 
only  with  such  limitations  as  were  prescribed  by  the 
Secretary  of  the  Treasury.  A  supplemental  Act,  ap- 
proved March  2,  1907,  which  went  into  effect  Septem- 
ber I,  1907,  elaborated  and  perfected  the  original  law. 


*  The  law  provides:  "From  and  after  January  i,  1907, 
domestic  alcohol  of  such  degree  of  proof  as  may  be  prescribed 
by  the  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue,  and  approved  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  may  be  withdrawn  from  bond 
without  the  payment  of  internal  revenue  tax,  for  use  in  the 
arts  and  industries,  and  for  fuel,  light,  and  power,  provided 
said  alcohol  shall  have  been  mixed  in  the  presence  and  under 
the  direction  of  an  authorized  government  officer,  after  with- 
drawal from  the  distillery  warehouse,  with  methyl  alcohol 
or  other  denaturing  material  or  materials,  or  admixture  of  the 
same,  suitable  to  the  use  for  which  the  alcohol  is  withdrawn, 
but  which  destroys  its  character  as  a  beverage,  and  renders  it 
unfit  for  liquid  medicinal  purposes." 


ii8         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

The  extent  to  which  denatured  alcohol  is  used  is  some- 
thing of  a  disappointment  to  some  of  the  most  enthu- 
siastic advocates  of  the  removal  of  the  tax.  It  has  not 
yet  reached  the  proportions  officially  predicted  in 
1882.*  Yet  the  growth  in  the  use  of  this  article  in  the 
arts  has  been  rapid.  During  the  fiscal  year  1909,  1,137 
manufacturers  were  making  use  of  it  and  17,176  deal- 
ers were  selling  it.  The  following  tabulation  shows 
the  activities  of  the  traffic  since  the  enactment  of  the 
law: 

DENATURED  ALCOHOL  PRODUCED  IN 
THE  UNITED  STATES. 


Year  Ending 
June    30. 

Completely                  Specially 
Denatured.              Denatured. 

Total. 

1,397,861                      382,415 
1,812,122                   1,509,329 
2,370,839                  2,185,579 
3,076,924                  2,185,579 

1,780,276 
3,321,451 
4,556,418 
5,262,503 

1000 

1910      

*Six   months. 

The  use  of  denatured  alcohol  was  somewhat 
checked,  when  the  law  went  into  effect,  in  January, 
1907,  by  the  action  of  the  wood  alcohol  trust  in  drop- 
ping the  price  of  its  product  from  seventy  to  forty  cents 
per  gallon,  the  then  selling  price  of  denatured  alcohol. 
This  change  in  the  policy  of  the  government  drew  a 
sharp  line  between  alcohol  intended  for  a  legitimate 
manufacturing  purpose  and  alcohol  designed  for  saloon 
pr  beverage  purposes. 

The  relations  of  drug  stores  to  the  Federal 
government  are  confined  to  operations  under  the  Pure 

*     Report  of  Commissioner  of  Internal  Revenue  for  1882, 
pp.  CXXVII-VIII.     This  estimate  was  7,367,594  gallons. 


\  AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  119 

Food  and  Drug  Act,  as  mentioned  above,  and  also  to 
liability  to  the  payment  of  the  special  tax  as  ^'retail 
liquor  dealers"  under  certain  circumstances.  By  the 
provisions  of  Section  3246,  Revised  Statutes  of  the 
United  States,  a  druggist  is  permitted  to  keep  spirits 
and  wines  and  use  them  in  combination  with  other 
drugs,  in  the  preparation  of  medicines  that  are  not  bev- 
erages, and  to  sell  such  medicines  without  paying  the 
special  tax  as  a  liquor  dealer.  But  under  the  uniform 
ruling  of  the  Internal  Revenue  Department  and  the 
decisions  of  the  United  States  courts  a  druggist  can- 
not, without  subjecting  himself  to  this  special  tax,  sell 
such  spirits  or  wines  as  are  not  combined  with  drugs 
or  materials  which  take  them  out  of  the  class  of  bever- 
ages, even  when  he  sells  such  liquors  on  physicians* 
prescriptions  and  for  medicinal  use  only.  In  a  circular 
dated  January  20,  1890  (Circular  No.  340),  ruling* 
upon  this  point,  the  Internal  Revenue  Bureau  made  the 
following  observation : 

"As  to  the  compounds  called  "bitters,"  "tonics,"  and  the 
like,  the  rule  is,  that,  if  they  are  composed  of  spirits  in  com- 
bination with  drugs,  herbs,  roots,  etc.,  and  are  held  out  as 
remedies  for  diseases  stated  in  labels  on  the  bottles,  they  are 
to  be  regarded  as  medicines  until  the  facts  ascertained  as  to 
the  purposes  for  which  they  are  usually  sold  or  used  show 
them  to  be  beverages;  and,  until  such  facts  are  obtained, 
druggists  and  merchants  who  sell  these  compounds  in  good 
faith  as  medicines  only  are  not  to  be  called  on  to  pay  special 
tax  as  liquor  dealers  on  account  of  such  sales.     Every  person 

*  See  also  Circular  No.  608,  Treasury  Decisions,  Vol. 
IV,  p.  210. 


120         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

who  sells  them  as  beverages,  either  by  the  bottle  or  by  the 
drink,  or  sells  them  knowingly  to  those  who  buy  them 
for  use  as  beverages,  involves  himself  in  liability  to  criminal 
prosecution  under  the  internal-revenue  laws  of  the  United 
States,  unless  he  holds  a  special  tax  as  a  liquor  dealer  cover- 
ing such  sales." 

The  essence  of  this  is  that  any  druggist  can  sell 
or  compound  any  legitimate  prescription  or  medicine 
containing  alcohol,  without  paying  this  special  tax  as 
a  retail  liquor  dealer.  He  cannot,  however,  fill  a  pre- 
scription for  a  bottle  of  whisky  or  a  case  of  beer  with- 
out paying  this  tax.  The  latter  variety  of  business  is 
the  province  of  a  saloon. 

So  far  as  the  legitimate  druggist  is  concerned, 
there  was  no  difficulty  over  the  application  of  the  spirit 
of  this  ruling.  But  all  druggists  are  not  of  immaculate 
probity,  and  various  decoctions  were  prepared  nomi- 
nally medicines,  but  actually  beverages,  which  were 
sold  in  both  prohibition  and  license  territory,  under 
the  protection,  or  rather  in  spite,  of  Section  3246,* 
(Revised  Statutes),  which,  in  effect,  declares  it  to  be 
unnecessary  to  pay  the  special  tax  for  the  conduct  of 
any  legitimate  drug  business.  This  abuse  became  so 
flagrant  that  in  1905,  the  Internal  Revenue  Department 
began  dealing  with  the  subject  in  a  series  of  Circular 


*  The  exempting  clause  of  this  section  reads:  "Nor 
shall  any  special  tax  be  imposed  upon  apothecaries  as  to  wines 
and  spirituous  liquors  which  they  use  exclusively  in  the  prep- 
aration or  making  up  of  medicines." 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  121 

instructions  to  Collectors.    In  the  first  of  these  (Circu- 
lar No.  673)  the  Department  held : 

"It  is  held  that  the  statute  requires  the  exaction  of  this 
special  tax  from  the  manufacturer  of  every  compound  com- 
posed of  distilled  spirits,  even  though  drugs  are  declared  to 
have  been  added  thereto,  when  their  presence  is  not  discover- 
able by  chemical  analysis  or  it  is  found  that  the  quantity  of 
drugs  in  the  preparation  is  so  small  as  to  have  no  appreciable 
effect  on  the  alcoholic  liquor  of  which  the  compound  is  main- 
ly or  largely  composed. 

"The  same  ruling  applies  to  every  alcoholic  compound 
labeled  as  a  remedy  for  diseases  and  containing,  in  addition  to 
distilled  spirits,  only  substances  or  ingredients  which,  how- 
ever large  their  quantity,  are  not  of  a  character  to  impart  any 
medicinal  quality  to  the  compound;  but  where  substances 
undoubtedly  medicinal  in  their  character  are  combined  with 
whisky  or  other  alcoholic  liquor  and  are  used  in  sufficient 
quantity  to  give  a  medicinal  quality  to  the  liquor  other  than 
that  which  it  may  inherently  possess,  such  compound  is,  of 
course,  not  to  be  included  in  this  ruling. 

"The  question,  in  each  case,  arising  under  the  terms  of 
this  circular  will  be  determined  by  this  office,  not  merely  up- 
on examination  of  the  formula  submitted  by  the  manufacturer 
of  the  compound,  but  upon  results  of  the  analysis  made  in 
the  chemical  laboratory  here  of  samples  obtained  in  the  open 
market  and  sent  in  by  the  local  internal  revenue  officers  and 
agents." 

Druggists  were  given  until  December  i,  1905,  to 
adjust  affairs  to  this  ruling.  Under  the  practice  of  the 
Departments  each  concoction  was  required  to  stand  on 
its  own  merits.  Later,  circulars  (Nos.  676,  713)  and 
numerous  bulletins  were  issued,  placing  various  com- 
pounds which  had  been  analyzed  upon  the  list  of  those 
for  the  sale  of  which  the  special  tax  was  required.  The 


122    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

holding  of  the  Department  in  reference  to  those  spu- 
rious medicines  was  further  elaborated  by  the  Depart- 
ment in  1907.*  Describing  these  beverages,  Commis- 
sioner Capers  said : 

"First,  there  is  a  class  of  preparations  held  out  as  medi- 
cines by  the  manufacturers,  but  which  are  in  fact  intended  to 
be  sold  and  consumed  as  beverages,  and  which  are  really 
nothing  but  alcoholic  beverages.  Such  preparations  are  usu- 
ally manufactured  for  sale  in  localities  where  for  some  rea- 
son spirituous  liquors  cannot  be  legally  sold. 

"Second,  there  is  a  class  of  preparations  which  are  really 
medicines  and  which  are  often  used  as  such,  but  which  con- 
tain alcohol  considerably  in  excess  of  what  is  necessary  to 
hold  in  solution  or  preserve  the  medicinal  ingredients.  Such 
preparations  fall  within  the  category  of  beverages  as  known 
to  the  internal  revenue  laws,  no  matter  how  they  may  be  sold 
or  used. 

"Third,  there  is  a  class  of  preparations  containing  no 
more  alcohol  than  is  necessary  to  hold  the  medicinal  agents 
in  solution.  These  are  usually  sold  as  medicines,  but  they  are 
sometimes  sold  and  consumed  as  beverages.  They  properly 
fall  within  the  classification  of  medicines." 

His  holding  regarding  these  classes  of  compounds 
described  was: 

"Manufacturers  of  the  first  two  classes  are  liable  as  rec- 
tifiers (or  brewers,  in  the  case  of  malt  liquors)  and  persons 
selling  the  preparations  are  liable  as  liquor  or  malt-liquor 
dealers.  The  question  of  good  faith  on  the  part  of  the  dealer 
is  not  an  element  to  be  considered. 

"There  are  several  tests  whereby  the  character  of  the 
first  class  of  preparations  can  be  fixed.     For  instance,  if  the 

*    Circular  No.  707;  Treasury  Decision  1251,  Oct.  12,  1907. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  123 

compound  contains  alcohol  considerably  in  excess  of  what  is 
necessary  to  preserve  any  medicinal  agents  claimed  to  be 
used,  if  the  drugs  used  are  in  such  small  quantities  as  to  give 
the  preparation  little  therapeutic  value,  if  in  the  manufacture 
of  the  preparation  ingredients  whose  special  office  is  to 
render  it  potable  are  employed,  if  the  preparation  is  largely 
sold  in  localities  where  prohibition  laws  operate,  if  it  is  sold 
at  places  where  beverages  are  usually  dispensed,  or  if  the 
preparation  is  generally  purchased  by  persons  under  such 
circumstances  and  in  such  quantities  as  to  indicate  that  it  is 
consumed  as  a  beverage,  then  in  either  event  it  is  held  by 
this  office  that  the  preparation  is  a  beverage  and  special  tax 
liability  accrues  without  any  reference  as  to  the  character  of 
particular  sales.  Investigating  officers  will  in  such  cases  sim- 
ply secure  legal  evidence  that  the  party  being  investigated 
has  sold  a  preparation  known  to  be,  or  shown  to  come,  within 
this  class.  This  applies  likewise  to  preparations  of  the  second 
class. 

"In  the  case  of  the  third  class  of  preparations  it  is  held 
that  the  seller  is  not  subject  to  special-tax  liability  un- 
less legal  evidence  that  the  goods  purchased  were  consumed 
as  a  beverage  is  obtained,  and  that  the  sales  were  made  under 
such  circumstances  as  to  put  the  dealer  on  notice  of  the  pur- 
pose for  which  they  were  purchased. 

Under  the  unbroken  line  of  departmental  rulings 
and  decisions  of  the  courts  since  1890,  it  is  absolutely 
unnecessary  for  any  druggist  to  pay  the  special  tax 
as  a  retail  liquor  dealer,  in  order  to  conduct  a  legiti- 
mate drug  business.  Only  a  very  few  standard  patent 
medicines  have  been  ruled  as  being  of  such  a  charac- 
ter as  to  require  the  payment  of  this  special  tax  for 
their  sale,  and  the  manufacturers  thereof  have  so  mod- 


124         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

ified  their  formulae  as  to  come  within  the  law.  *  There 
are,  however,  a  large  number  of  quack  preparations 
designed  wholly  for  beverage  purposes  which  have 
been  placed  under  the  ban  by  the  Department.  A 
circular  dated  June  i,  1909  (T.  D.  1505)  gives  a  list 
of  163  such  compounds. 


*  The  so-called  two  per  cent  beers,  which  are  sold  so 
extensively  in  Prohibition  territory,  are  not  exempt  from  the 
excise.  The  holding  of  the  Department  is  that  any  fermented 
beverage  made  from  malt  or  a  substitute  for  malt,  and  con- 
taining as  much  as  one-half  of  one  per  cent  of  alcohol,  meas- 
ured by  volume,  is  subject  to  the  payment  of  the  excise  tax 
by  the  brewers,  and  retailers  thereof  are  compelled  to  pay 
the  tax  as  "retail  malt  liquor  dealers."  The  payment  of  the 
beer  tax  on  these  two  per  cent  beers  accounts,  in  part,  for  the 
statistical  increase  in  the  consumption  of  liquors,  as  all  bev- 
erages which  pay  this  tax  are  classed  as  "malt  liquors." 


The  Army  and  Navy. 


CHAPTER  V. 

In  the  history  of  the  military  and  naval  affairs  of 
the  country,  drink  has  ever  been  a  factor  to  be  reckoned 
with.  Drunkenness  when  on  duty  has  always  been 
severely  punished.  As  to  the  attitude  of  the  Govern- 
ment toward  the  supply  of  intoxicants,  three  policies 
have  been  thoroughly  tested  in  decades  of  experience, 
and  all  have  been  thrown  upon  the  scrap  heap  of  the 
past  with  the  flint-lock  firearms  and  wooden  men-of- 
war.  The  first  of  these  policies  was  the  furnishing  of 
a  spirit  ration  by  the  Government  itself  on  the  theory 
that  a  limited  amount  of  alcohol  was  beneficial  to  the 
soldier  and  that  it  was  best  for  it  to  be  supplied  di- 
rectly by  the  Government  as  a  component  part  of  the 
ration.  After  a  half  century  of  experience  with  this 
policy,  it  was  abandoned  for  the  reason  that  it  was  a 
failure.  Then  followed  a  half  century  or  so  of  the 
sutler  system,  in  which  a  semi-official  contractor  sup- 
plied liquor,  with  other  goods,  under  strict  Govern- 
ment supervision.  This  policy  failed,  and  was  also 
discarded.  The  next  plan  was  the  co-operative  saloon, 
conducted  by  the  soldiers  themselves,  but  under  strict 
military  regulations  which  limited  sales  to  ''light  wine 


126    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

and  beer,"  the  profits  going  to  the  company  mess  fund 
to  supply  articles  of  diet  not  furnished  by  the  com- 
missary. This  plan  was  put  to  the  test  of  fifteen  years' 
actual  experience,  and  was  also  discarded  as  a  failure. 
The  Continental  army  was  on  a  spirit  ration  basis, 
but  the  ration  was  varied  because  it  was  fixed  partly 
by  the  various  colonies  themselves.*  The  Pennsyl- 
vania Assembly,  April  4,  1776,  fixed  the  ration  for 
Pennsylvania  troops  at  one  quart  of  small  beer,  per 


*  The  troubles  that  beset  the  revolutionists,  through  the 
whisky  peddlers,  is  evidenced  from  an  order  taken  from  the 
Orderly  Book  of  Captain  William  Cort's  company,  camped  at 
Cambridge,  Mass.,  under  date  of  June  14,  1775:  "See  that  all 
tumults  &  Differences  In  Camp  be  Suppressed,  that  all  sold- 
iers repaire  to  there  Barracks  and  Tents  after  the  Beating  of 
the  Tato  on  penalty  of  being  Confined,  that  there  Be  no  Noise 
in  camp  after  nine  o'clock  at  Night,  that  the  Field  officers  of 
the  day  take  Especial  Care  to  prevent  all  grogge  shops  and 
if  the  owners  of  them  Continue  to  sell  Liquors  to  the  Sold- 
iers he  be  ordered  to  Stave  all  there  Licquers." — Conn.  Hist. 
Soc.  Collections,  Vol.  VII,  p.  20. 

On  July  II  of  the  same  year,  Lieut.  CoL  Ward,  President 
of  the  Court  Martial,  issued  the  following:  "Notwithstanding 
the  orders  of  the  Provential  Congress,  some  persons  are  so 
Dairing  as  to  supply  the  Soldiers  with  Immoderate  quantitys 
of  Rum  &  other  Speiratus  Licquers,  any  Seller,  tavern 
keeper  or  Lisanced  Inholder  who  Shall  Presume,  after  the 
date  of  this  order  to  Sell  to  Any  Non  Commissioned  officer 
or  Soldir,  Any  Speritus  Licquers  whatever  without  an  order 
in  Writing  from  the  Capt  of  the  Company  to  Which  Such 
Noncommissioned  officer  or  Soldier  Belongs,  he  or  they  So 
offending  May  Expect  to  be  Severely  punished." — Ibid,  p.  44^ 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  127 

man,  per  day.  On  February  i,  1776,  the  Maryland 
Council  of  Safety  fixed  the  ration  for  Maryland  troops 
at  one-half  pint  of  rum  per  man  per  day  and  discre- 
tionary allowances  for  particular  occasions.  On  No- 
vember 4,  1775,  the  Continental  Congress  fixed  the 
army  ration  at  "one  quart  of  spruce  beer  or  cyder" 
per  day*  and,  on  Novemer  28,  fixed  the  rations  for 
the  Navy  at  a  half  pint  of  rum  per  man  and  discre- 
tionary allowances  when  on  extra  duty  or  in  time  of 
engagement. f  But  the  liquor  ration  was  supplemented 
by  the  army  sutler,  who  sold  to  all  who  had  the  price. 
The  rule  governing  such  sales  was  continued  in  Sec- 
tion VIII,  Article  i  of  the  rules  and  regulations  for 
the  government  of  the  army  adopted  by  Congress  Sep- 
tember 20,  1776.    The  rule  was : 

"No  sutler  shall  be  permitted  to  sell  any  kind  of  liquors  or 
victuals  or  keep  their  houses  or  shops  open,  for  the  entertain- 
ment of  soldiers,  after  nine  at  night,  or  before  the  beating  of 
the  reveilles,  or  upon  Sundays,  during  divine  service,  or  ser- 
mon, on  the  penalty  of  being  dismissed  from  all  future  sutt- 
ling."  t 

The  spirit  ration  and  the  sutler  combined  did  not 
appear  to  "keep  the  soldier  out  of  the  outside  resorts," 
for  we  find  General  Washington  issuing  orders  at 
Cambridge,  Massachusetts,  March  25,  1776,  which 
read,  in  part,  "All  officers  of  the  Continental  Army  are 
enjoined  to  assist  the  civil  magistrates  in  the  execu- 

*    Journal  Continental  Congress,  Vol.  Ill,  p.  322. 
t     Ibid,  p.  383. 

t  Journal  of  the  Continental  Congress,  Vol.  V,  p.  794; 
Cross,  Military  Laws  of  the  U.  S.,  p.  18. 


128         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

tion  of  their  duty,  and  to  promote  peace  and  good 
order.  They  are  to  prevent,  as  much  as  possible,  the 
soldiers  from  frequenting  tippling  houses."  The  Con- 
tinental hospital  regulations,  promulgated  in  July, 
1776,  provided  a  corporal's  guard  "to  prevent  the  sick 
from  leaving  the  hospital  without  permission  from  the 
surgeon,  and  to  keep  persons  from  going  in,  without 
orders,  to  disturb  the  sick,  or  carry  liquor  to  them."* 
So  far  from  the  spirit  ration  and  the  sutler  system, 
under  strict  military  regulations,  solving  the  troubles 
due  to  drink,  it  was  necessary  to  place  a  corporal's 
guard  to  keep  the  whisky  peddlers  out  of  the  military 
hospitals.f 

The  Act  of  Congress,  approved  April  30,  1790, 
one  year  after  the  War  Department  was  established, 
provided  the  following  ration  for  the  army: 

"And  be  it  further  enacted:  That  every  non-commissioned 
officer,  private  and  musician,  aforesaid,  shall  receive  daily  the 
following  rations  of  provisions,  or  the  value  thereof:  One 
pound  of  beef,  or  three-quarters  of  a  pound  of  pork,  one 
pound  of  bread  or  flour,  half  a  gill  of  rum,  brandy  or  whisky, 
or  the  value  thereof,  at  the  contract  price  where  the  same 
becomes  due.  and  at  the  rate  of  one  quart  of  salt,  two  quarts 

*     American  Archives,  Fifth  Series,  Vol.  I,  p.  109. 

t  Alibigence  Waldo,  Surgeon  in  the  Continental  Army, 
kept  a  diary  during  that  winter  at  Valley  Forge,  1777-78.  The 
entry  for  Dec.  8  read:  "All  at  our  Several  Posts.  Provisions 
and  Whisky  very  scarce.  Were  Soldiers  to  have  plenty  of 
Food  and  Rum,  I  believe  they  would  storm  Tophet." — Hist. 
Mag.  Vol.  V,  p.  130. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  129 

of  vinegar,  two  pounds  of  soap,  and  one  pound  of  candles,  to 
every  hundred  rations."* 

The  Act  of  May  30,  1796,  made  no  change  in  the 
spirit  ration  save  to  take  away  from  the  soldier  the 
right  to  commute  the  same.  He  had  to  take  the  rum 
ration  or  nothing  in  its  place.t  The  army  organiza- 
tion Act  of  March  3,  1799,  eliminated  the  spirit  ration 
except  as  to  those  soldiers  who  were  allowed  this  by 
the  terms  of  their  enlistments,  but  the  same  Act 
authorized  commanding  officers  to  issue  a  ration  not 
exceeding  one-half  gill  of  spirit  per  day  and  more  in 
case  of  fatigue,  service  or  on  "other  extraordinary 
occasions. "J 

Three  years  later,  however,  (Act  of  March  16, 
1802)  Congress  not  only  restored  spirits  as  a  com- 
ponent part  of  the  ration,  but  doubled  the  amount, 
making  it  a  gill  instead  of  half  a  gill  as  heretofore.§ 

About  this  period,  a  new  factor  appeared  in  the 
situation.  Thomas  Jefferson  had  been  elected  presi- 
dent and  one  of  his  favorite  ideas  was  to  encourage  the 
use  of  light  wines  and  beer    in    place    of    spirituous 


*     Cross,  Military  Laws  of  the  U.  S.,  p.  43;  Callan,  Mili- 
tary Laws  of  the  U.  S.,  p.  89. 
t     Cross;  p.  64. 
t    Cross;  p.  94. 
§     Cross,  p.  loi;  Callan,  p.  144. 


130         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

liquors.*  John  Adams  had  also  acquired  considerable 
reputation  for  "fanaticism"  on  account  of  his  strenuous 
opposition  to  ''taverns''  and  spirit  drinking  at  his 
home  at  Braintree  (Quincy),  Massachusetts.  While 
opposed  to  spirits,  Adams  was  friendly  to  cider.  Re- 
flecting these  ideas,  Congress,  in  1804  (Act  of  March 
26),  authorized  ''That  an  equivalent  in  malt  liquor,  or 
low  wines,  may  be  supplied  the  troops  of  the  United 
States,  instead  of  rum,  whisky  or  brandy,  which  by 
the  said  Act  is  made  a  component  part  of  the  ration, 
at  such  posts  and  garrisons,  and  at  such  seasons  of  the 
year,  as,  in  the  opinion  of  the  President  of  the  United 
States,  may  be  necessary  for  the  preservation  of  their 
health."t 

The  Second  War  with  England  (1812-14)  passed 
into  history  with  no  further  changes  in  the  spirit 
ration.    But  in  this  period  the  evidences  multiplied  as 

*  Mr.  Jefferson  well  expressed  his  attitude  in  this  matter 
in  a  letter  written  to  Thomas  Yancy,  in  1815,  in  which  he 
said:  "There  is  before  the  Assembly  (Virginia)  a  petition  of 
Captain  Miller,  which  I  have  at  heart,  because  I  have  great 
esteem  for  the  petitioner  as  an  honest  and  useful  man.  He  is 
about  to  settle  in  our  country,  and  to  establish  a  brewery,  in 
which  art  I  think  he  is  as  skillful  a  man  as  ever  came  to 
America.  I  wish  to  see  this  beverage  become  common  in- 
stead of  the  whisky  which  kills  one-third  of  our  citizens,  and 
ruins  their  families.  He  is  staying  with  me  until  he  can  fix 
himself,  and  I  shall  be  thankful  for  information  from  time  to 
time  of  fhe  progress  of  his  petition." — Writings  of  Thomas 
Jefferson,  Ford  Ed.,  Vol.  X,  p.  2. 

t     Cross,  p.  107;  Callan,  p.  170.  0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  131 

to  its  unsatisfactory  character,  John  C.  Calhoun,  a 
member  of  the  Foreign  Relations  Committee  of  the 
House  of  Representatives,  had  much  to  do  with  in- 
stigating this  conflict,  and,  two  years  after  its  close, 
he  was  called  into  the  Cabinet  as  President  Monroe's 
Secretary  of  War.  It  was  in  this  capacity  that  Cal- 
houn made  a  record  that  first  brought  him  lasting 
fame.  He  re-organized  the  War  Department  from  the 
bottom  up,  eliminated  a  multitude  of  abuses  and  re- 
duced the  expenses  of  the  Department  from  $481  to 
$287  per  man.  One  of  the  first  things  that  came  under 
his  observation  was  the  policy  of  the  spirit  ration,  a 
policy  that  he  was  led  to  oppose  after  investigating  its 
results.  In  the  year  1818,  Congress  authorized  (Act 
approved  April  14)  the  President  to  "make  such  altera- 
tions in  the  component  parts  of  the  ration  as  due  re- 
gard to  the  health  and  comfort  of  the  army  and  econ- 
omy may  require."*  Calhoun  lost  no  time  in  calling 
for  a  report  from  the  Surgeon  General  as  to  the  pro- 
priety of  furnishing  a  substitute  for  the  spirit  ration. 
The  report  was  finally  forthcoming,t  but  its  purport 
was  averse  to  any  change  in  the  spirit  ration.  So  the 
ration  of  a  gill  a  day  per  man  remained  for  the  time 
being. 

*  Cross,  p.  202.  This  Act  was  for  a  period  of  five  years 
only.  It  was  renewed  for  a  like  period  in  1823  and  again  in 
1829,  and  made  permanent  March  3,  1835. 

t  Report  Surgeon  General  Joseph  Lovell  to  the  Sec.  of 
War,  Jan.  26,  1829.  Ex.  Papers,  20th  Congress,  2d  Session, 
Doc.  No.  103. 


132         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Eighteen  months  later,  Mr.  Calhoun  made  another 
attempt  to  carry  his  anti-spirit  ration  ideas  into  effect. 
On  August  lo,  1820,  George  Gibson,  Commissary 
General  of  Subsistence,  sent  out  to  all  assistant  com- 
missary generals  a  circular  letter  in  which  he  stated 
that  it  was  his  own  wish  and  also  that  of  Mr.  Cal- 
houn, the  Secretary  of  War,  to  dispense  with  the  spirit 
ration,  and  offered  troops  the  contract  price  thereof  in 
money.*  The  proposal  was  accepted  by  a  few  posts, 
but  the  plan  shortly  fell  into  disuse.  Mr.  Calhoun's 
attention  became  absorbed  in  other  contests  over 
public  matters,  and  a  temperance  career  was  nipped 
in  the  bud.  The  spirit  ration  continued  to  thrive  and 
make  soldiers  drunk. 

The  next  assault  made  on  the  spirit  ration  was  that 
of  John  H.  Eaton,  Secretary  of  War  and  personal 
friend  of  President  Jackson.  Eaton  was  a  strong 
friend  of  the  temperance  movement,  then  assuming 
considerable  proportions,  and  when  he  entered  Mr. 
Jackson'sf  Cabinet,  in  1829,  the  spirit  ration  was 
scheduled  for  trouble.  In  a  report  made  to  Congress 
in   February,    1830,   Secretary   Eaton   made  a   savage 


*  State  Papers,  21st  Congress,  ist  Session,  Doc.  22, 
t  While  in  his  youth,  General  Jackson  had  sowed  a  con- 
siderable quantity  of  wild  oats,  yet  in  his  mature  years  he  was 
a  strong  friend  of  the  temperance  cause.  He  was  conspic- 
uous in  his  efforts  to  abolish  the  spirit  ration,  and  banished 
all  intoxicating  liquors  from  the  White  House  levees. — See 
Journal  American  Temperance  Union,  July,  1845;  Parton,  Life 
of  Andrew  Jackson;  Rumple,  Hist.  Rowan  Co.,  N.  C,  p.  294. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  133 

attack  upon  the  spirit  ration  of  the  army,  recommend- 
ing its  abolition.  He  presented  the  following  statis- 
tics of  desertion  during  the  previous  seven  years,  and 
stated  that  nearly  all  of  those  v^ho  deserted  in  1829 
did  so  through  drink.  He  also  presented  a  formidable 
array  of  reports  from  army  chiefs  advocating  the  dis- 
continuance of  the  spirit  ration.* 


*  See,  State  Papers,  21st  Congress,  ist  session.  Doc.  No. 
22,    Alexander    Macomb,    Major    General,    commanding    the 

army  said:     "It  is  certain  that  nothing  has  tended  so 

much  to  degrade  the  rank  and  file  of  the  army  as  the  ex- 
cessive use  of  ardent  spirit;  nor  has  it  been  less  destructive 
to  their  health  and  discipline.  Any  plan,  therefore,  that  can 
be  devised  that  will  be  likely  to  eradicate  the  evil,  is  worthy 
of  the  trial.  In  accordance  with  the  tenor  of  the  resolution 
(of  Congress),  I  would  suggest  that  the  rations  of  liquor  now 
furnished  to  the  troops  be  discontinued,  and,  in  lieu  thereof, 
a  portion  of  rice  and  molasses  be  issued;  and,  further,  that  a 
bounty  of  one  dollar  a  month,  to  each  non-commissioned  offi- 
cer, musician,  artificer  and  private  soldier,  be  paid  at  the  ex- 
piration of  his  term  of  service,  on  producing  a  certificate, 
from  his  commanding  officer,  of  total  abstinence  from  the  use 
of  ardent  spirits,  declaring  at  the  same  time,  that  he  has  con- 
ducted himself  in  an  orderly  manner  during  the  term  of  his 
enlistment." 

Adjutant-General  Jones  said:  "Ardent  spirits  should  be 
discontinued  in  the  army,  as  a  part  of  the  daily  rations.  I 
know  from  observation  and  experience,  when  in  command  of 
troops,  the  pernicious  effects  arising  from  the  practice  of  reg- 
ular daily  issues  of  whisky.  If  the  recruit  joins  the  service 
with  an  unvitiated  taste,  which  is  not  infrequently  the  case, 
the  daily  privilege  and  the  uniform  example  soon  induce  him 
to  taste,  and  then  to  drink  his  allowance.     The  habit  being 


YEARS. 

Number. 

Tried  by 

Court-Martial. 

668 

1,093 

8ii 

1,175 

803 

1,208 

636 

1,115 

848 

991 

820 

1,476 

1,083 

134         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 
DESERTIONS  FROM  THE  ARMY    IN    SEVEN 

Year. 

1823 
1824 
1825 
1826 
1827 
1828 
1829 

Total  5,669  7,058 

A  total  of  1,083  arrests  out  of  an  army  of  only 
about  6,000  was,  indeed,  an  alarming  showing.  Con- 
gress, however,  was  slow.  Both  the  President  and  his 
war  secretary  were  men  of  action.  Mr.  Eaton,  under 
authority  of  President  Jackson,  on  November  30,  1830, 

acquired,  he,  too,  soon  becomes  an  habitual  toper." 

Major-General  Gaines  said:  "The  proceedings  of  court 
martial  are  alone  sufficient  to  prove  that  the  crime  of  intoxi- 
cation almost  always  precedes,  and  is  often  the  immediate 
cause  of  desertion.  And  I  am,  moreover,  convinced  that  most 
of  the  soldiers,  who  enter  the  army  as  sober  men,  acquire 
habits  of  intemperance  principally  by  falling  into  the  practice 
of  drinking  their  gill,  or  half  a  gill,  of  whisky  every  morning. 
I  have  known  sober  recruits  who  would  often  throw  away 
their  morning  allowance,  but  whose  constant  intercourse  with 
tipplers  would  soon  induce  them  to  taste  a  little,  and  in  time, 
a  little  more,  until  they  became  habitual  drunkards.  I  am 
therefore  decidedly  of  the  opinion  that  the  whisky  part  of 
the  ration  does,  slowly  but  surely,  lead  men  into  these  in- 
temperate and  vicious  habits,  out  of  which  grow  desertions 
and  most  other  crimes." 

0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  135 

issued  a  department  order  discontinuing  the  regular 
spirit  ration  and  making  rules  for  the  government  of 
sutlers  in  selling  spirits  to  the  troops.  The  following 
is  the  text  of  this  order: 

"i.  Upon  official  statements  of  Generals,  Inspector  Gen- 
erals and  commanders  of  regiments  and  companies,  confirm- 
ed by  the  reports  of  the  medical  staff,  representing  that  the 
habitual  use  of  ardent  spirits  by  the  troops  has  a  pernicious 
effect  upon  their  health,  morals  and  discipline,  it  is  hereby 
directed  that  after  the  promulgation  of  this  order  at  the  sev- 
eral military  posts  and  stations,  the  Commissaries  will  cease 
to  issue  ardent  spirits  as  a  part  of  the  daily  ration  of  the 
soldier.  An  allowance  of  money  in  lieu  thereof  will  be  made 
by  the  Subsistence  Department,  computing  the  value  of  the 
ration  of  whisky  at  the  contract  price  at  the  place  of  deliv- 
ery. This  regulation  is  not  to  be  construed  so  as  to  inter- 
fere with  the  act  of  Congress  of  the  26.  of  March,  1819,  reg- 
ulating the  pay  of  the  army  when  employed  on  fatigue  duty, 
but  all  issues  on  such  occasions  may  be  commuted  for  money 
at  the  contract  price,  at  the  option  of  the  soldier. 

"2.  Sutlers  are  prohibited  from  selling  to  any  soldier  a 
greater  quantity  than  two  gills  of  ardent  spirits  a  day,  and 
that  or  any  less  quantity  is  to  be  issued  only  on  the  written 
permission  of  his  commanding  officer,  who  will  exercise  a 
sound  discretion  in  reference  thereto. 

"3.  No  liquor  shall  be  sold  or  issued  before  noon,  and 
when  procured  of  the  sutler  the  soldier  shall  pay  in  cash 
therefor  at  the  time  of  delivery. 

"4.  The  practice  of  advancing  and  of  issuing  due  bills 
representing  money,  by  sutlers  or  others  connected  with 
the  army,  to  soldiers,  having  been  found  detrimental  to  the 
interests  of  the  service,  is  hereby  prohibited. 

"5.  Any  sutler  who  shall  offend  in  any  of  the  above 
particulars,   or   who   shall    receive   due   bills    for   any   article 


136    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

sold  by  him  to  the  soldiers,  shall  forfeit  his  appointment  on 
satisfactory  proof  thereof  being  furnished." 

In  1831,  General  Lewis  Cass  succeeded  Mr.  Eaton 
as  Secretary  of  War.  Mr.  Cass  was  prominent  in  the 
temperance  agitation  of  his  time  and  carried  out  the 
policy  of  his  predecessor  in  regard  to  the  spirit  ration. 
He  strengthened  Secretary  Eaton's  order  by  absolute- 
ly forbidding  the  sale  of  spirits  by  sutlers  and  substi- 
tuting coffee  in  lieu  of  spirits  in  the  regular  ration.* 


*  The  following  is  an  extract  from  this  order  (dated 
Nov.  2,  1832.): 

"i.  Hereafter  no  ardent  spirits  will  be  issued  to  troops 
of  the  United  States,  as  a  component  part  of  the  ration,  nor 
shall  any  commutation  therefor  be  paid  to  them. 

"2.  No  ardent  spirits  will  be  introduced  into  any  fort, 
camp,  or  garrison  of  the  United  States,  nor  sold  by  any  sutler 
to  the  troops.  Nor  will  any  permit  be  granted  for  the  pur- 
chase of  ardent  spirits. 

"Under  the  authority  vested  in  the  President  by  the  8th 
section  of  the  act  of  Congress  of  April  14th,  1818,  the  follow- 
ing changes  will  be  made  in  the  ration  issued  to  the  Army: 

"3.  As  a  substitute  for  the  ardent  spirits  issued  pre- 
viously to  the  adoption  of  the  general  regulation  of  Novem- 
ber 30th,  1830,  and  for  the  comfnutation  in  money  prescribed 
thereby,  eight  pounds  of  sugar  and  four  pounds  of  coffee  will 
be.  allowed  to  every  one  hundred  rations.  And  at  those  posts 
where  the  troops  may  prefer  it,  ten  pounds  of  rice  may  be 
issued  to  every  hundred  rations,  in  lieu  of  the  eight  quarts  of 
beans  allowed  by  the  existing  regulations. 

"4.  These  regulations  will  not  extend  to  the  cases  pro- 
vided for  by  the  act  of  Congress  of  March  2d,  1819,  entitled 
"An  Act  to  regulate  the  pay  of  the  Army  when  employed  on 
fatigue  duty,"  in  which  no  discretionary  authority  is  vested 
in  the  President,  nor  to  the  necessary  supplies  for  the  Hos- 
pital Department  of  the  Army." 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  137 

The  matter  of  the  fatigue  ration  and  the  ration  for 
"extraordinary  occasions"  was  not  within  executive 
discretion. 

The  next  attack  made  was  on  the  fatigue  ration, 
and  this  attack  came  from  within  the  ranks  of  the 
army.  Many  officers  and  soldiers  petitioned  Congress 
to  abolish  the  fatigue  ration.  *  The  result  of  this  agi- 
tation was  that  Congress,  in  the  Act  of  July  5,  1838, 
substituted  coffee  "in  lieu  of  spirit  or  whisky"t  and 
the  army  spirit  ration  in  the  United  States  Army  closed 
its  career.  Its  abolition  was  brought  about  chiefly 
through  the  agitation  within  the  army  itself.  It  was 
abolished  simply  because,  after  a  half  century  of  exper- 
ience, it  was  found  that  temperance  and  good  order 
in  the  army  could  not  be  maintained  by  furnishing 
free  drinks  to  the  soldiers  at  government  expense.  The 

*  Daniel  Webster,  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts,  in 
presenting  and  asking  leave  to  print  one  of  these  petitions, 
said,  that  he  had  "particular  pleasure  in  presenting  the  me- 
morial of  certain  officers  of  the  army,  praying  Congress  to 
repeal  a  part  of  the  law  which  allows  whisky  to  soldiers  on 
fatigue  duty.  These  persons,  most  competent  certainly  'to 
judge,  are  of  opinion  that  this  allowance  should  be  discon- 
tinued. They  think  the  substitute  provided  for  other  cases, 
would  be  most  usefully  applied  to  this  also.  So  decisive  a 
testimonial  in  favor  of  the  great  cause  of  Temperance,  ought 
to  have  much  weight.  If  ardent  spirits  may  be  beneficially 
and  usefully  dispensed  with  by  soldiers  on  fatigue  duty,  it 
would  be  difficult  to  maintain  the  necessity  of  their  use  by 
persons  in  any  occupation  or  employment." — Report  American 
Temperance  Union,  1838. 

t     Callan,  p.  346.  "" 


138         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

spirit  ration  had  been  the  plague  of  the  War  of  the 
Revolution.  It  had  balked  and  defeated  the  efforts  of 
the  soldiers  in  the  second  War  with  England,  and  Gen- 
eral Winfield  Scott  himself*  is  authority  for  the  state- 
ment that  fifty  per  cent  of  all  his  losses  in  the  Mexican 
War  came  from  this  source. 

The  lack  of  vigilance  of  officers  in  dealing  with 
sutlers  called  forth  an  order  from  Secretary  of  War 
George  W.  Crawford,  dated  September  21,  1849,  ^^^' 
bidding  sutlers  from  selling  ''ardent  spirits  or  other 
intoxicating  drinks,  under  penalty  of  losing  their  sit- 
uations." This  order  was  issued  at  a  time  when  the 
temperance  propaganda  was  at  high  tide  and  when  the 
demand  for  absolute  prohibition  of  the  beverage  liq- 
uor traffic  began  assuming  extensive  proportions.  But 
iat  the  breaking  out  of  the  Civil  W^ar  both  temperance 
and  prohibition  affairs  were  swallowed  up  in  the  strug- 
gle. While  the  public  attention  was  taken  up  in  these 
great  national  issues  the  whisky  peddler  lurked  at 
home,  poisoning  the  laws  of  his  state,  and  in  the  envi- 
rons of  army  camps,  defeating  his  country's  arms.  In 
this  confusion  of  the  hour  the  ''fatigue"  ration  crept 
back  into  army  practice.  The  Revised  Army  Regula- 
tions, issued  by  Secretary  of  War  Simon  Cameron, 
August  10,  1861.  provided  a  ration  of  **one  gill  [whis- 
ky] per  man  daily,  in  case  of  excessive  fatigue,  or  se- 
vere exposure."  But  the  same  influences  and  causes 
which  brought  about  this  concession  of  a  "fatigue  ra- 

*     Marsh,  Temperance  Recollections,  pp.  337-8. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  139 

tion"  operated  to  make  the  same  ''fatigue  ration"  mean 
whatever  any  regimental  commander  wished  to  have 
it  mean.  To  many  it  meant  the  issuing  of  a  drink  to 
a  soldier  every  time  that  he  felt  tired,  and  the  bibulous 
soldier  would  suddenly  become  stricken  with  "excessive 
fatigue"  every  time  he  wanted  a  drink.  In  much  of 
the  army  the  "excessive  fatigue"  ration  became  like 
any  other  ration.  The  law  was  also  stretched  to  allow 
the  sutler  to  peddle  liquor  and  a  period  of  de- 
moralization set  in.  Such  a  period  of  confusion 
is  always  attendant  upon  the  rapid  mobilization 
of  large  forces  of  undisciplined  volunteers,  but 
the  injection  of  w^hisky,  especially  through  regu- 
lar army  channels  of  supply,  vastly  augments  the 
natural  troubles.  In  the  opening  days  of  the  war  the 
troubles  growing  out  of  drink  in  the  army  attracted 
wide  interest.  The  first  disaster  to  the  Union  army, 
that  of  Bull  Run,  was  credited  largely  to  the  account 
of  drunkenness  on  the  part  of  an  army  officer  high  in 
command  on  the  Northern  side.  The  scandal  was 
aired  on  the  floor  of  Congress.  Senator  Pomeroy,  of 
Kansas,  voiced  the  popular  sentiment  on  the  floor  of 
the  Senate,  when  he  declared: 

"In  ordinary  years,  it  was  calculated  that  30,000  went 
down  to  the  grave,  the  home  of  the  drunkard,  but  it  would 
not  be  too  much  to  double  that  number  each  year  since  the 
war  began.  For  the  vice  of  intemperance  has  followed  the 
army,  has  visited  the  quarters  of  both  officer  and  private,  has 
taken  down  some  of  the  bravest  and  truest  of  the  land,  who, 
before,  had  always  stood  erect  in  their  manhood  and  their 
pride.    It  has  made  disorderly  and  riotous  the  loyal  camp  of 


140         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

the  soldier,  has  made  disgraceful  the  tent  of  the  officer,  and, 
on  more  than  one  occasion,  defeated  and  demoralized  an 
army  on  the  field  of  battle.  Of  the  thirty  thousand  victims  of 
disease  and  death  attending  on  the  Peninsular  campaign, 
the  last  year,  at  least  ten  thousand  may  be  set  down  as 
chargeable  to  the  daily  ration  of  whisky  and  quinine."* 

Major  General  McClellan  himself,  Commander  in 
Chief  of  the  Union  Army,  in  reviewing  a  court-martial 
of  an  officer  who  had  been  convicted  of  drunkenness, 
declared,  ''Would  all  the  officers  unite  in  setting  the 
soldiers  an  example  of  total  abstinence  from  intoxica- 
ting drinks,  it  would  be  equal  to  an  addition  of  50,000 
to  the  armies  of  the  United  States."  f  Congress  took 
quick  action.  A  joint  resolution  was  hurried  through 
both  houses  that  any  officer  found  guilty  of  habitual 
drunkenness  should  be  immediately  dismissed  from 
the  service.  J 

*     Marsh:    Recollections,  pp.  337-8. 

t     Marsh:     Recollections,  p.  335. 

t  The  following,  General  Orders  No.  11,  issued  from 
the  Headquarters  of  the  Middle  Department,  indicates  the 
acuteness  of  the  situation: 

"Baltimore,  Md.,  Apr.  16,  1862. 

'* The    Commanding   General   cannot   pass   by 

this  court  without  a  few  words  of  admonition  to  the  officers 
under  his  command.  Two  commissioned  officers  have  been 
found  guilty  of  drunkenness  by  this  court,  and  dismissed  the 
service,  and  not  a  court-martial  is  held  without  having  such 
cases  before  it;  every  sentence  in  these  cases,  however  severe, 
will  be  carried  out  with  the  utmost  rigor. 

"Drunkenness  is  the  bane  of  the  military  profession; 
it  has  gained  a  strong  foothold  in  the  commissioned  grades. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  141 

The  Act  of  March  19,  1862,  "An  Act  to  provide  for 
the  appointment  of  sutlers  in  the  volunteer  service," 
made  the  inspectors  general  a  board  of  officers  to  pre- 
pare a  list  of  articles  to  be  sold  by  sutlers,  and  con- 
tained the  following  clause — "Provided  always,  that 
no  intoxicating  liquors  shall  at  any  time  be  contained 
therein,  or  the  sale  of  such  liquors  be  in  any  way  auth- 
orized by  said  board."  * 

General  McClellan,  on  June  19,  of  the  same  year, 
issued  an  order  for  the  immediate  discontinuance  of  the 
spirit  ration,  and  that  hot  coffee  be  served  immediately 


and  the  Commanding  General  is  constrained  to  believe  that 
it  is  to  be  traced  in  some  instances  to  the  bad  example  which 
the  older  officers  set  to  the  younger  by  drinking  in  their 
presence,  and  inviting  them  to  drink  in  their  tents  and  quart- 
ers at  all  hours  of  the  day.  Moreover,  the  influence  of  these 
examples  upon  the  non-commissioned  officers  and  privates 
is  pernicious  in  the  extreme.  Nine-tenths  of  all  the  crimes 
and  offences  for  which  officers  and  soldiers  are  brought  to 
trial,  are  the  fruits  of  this  degrading  and  ungentlemanly  vice; 
and  the  Commanding  General  earnestly  appeals  to  the  offi- 
cers under  his  command  in  the  name  of  the  honorable  pro- 
fession at  arms,  which  it  is  their  duty  to  preserve  from  all 
taint,  and  in  the  name  of  the  distracted  country  in  whose 
service  they  are  imperiling  their  lives  to  banish  from  their 
encampments  and  quarters  all  intoxicating  liquors,  which 
add  no  vigor  either  to  their  mental  or  physical  powers,  ar.d 
which  are  a  certain  source  of  demoralization,  and  often  of 
indelible    disgrace. 

"By  command  of  Major  General  Dix. 

[Official.] 
D.  T.  Van  Buren,  Asst.  Adjt.  General. 

*     Callan,  p.  496. 


142         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

after  reveille.  To  General  Benjamin  F.  Butler,  how- 
ever, belonged  the  honor  of  first  interdicting  the  pres- 
ence in  camp  of  any  intoxicating  liquor  whatever,  and 
renouncing  all  use  of  it  in  his  own  quarters.  In  his 
general  order  on  the  subject  he  declared  that,  as  he 
desired  never  to  ask  either  officers  or  men  to  undergo 
any  privations  which  he  would  not  share  with  them, 
he  would  not  exempt  himself  from  the  operation  of  the 
order,  but  would  not  use  liquor  in  his  own  quarters,  as 
he  would  discourage  its  use  in  the  quarters  of  any  of- 
ficer.* General  Banks,  General  Hooker,  General  Ew- 
ell  and  Colonel  Ellsworth,f  who  was  killed  early  in 
the  struggle,  made  vigorous  war  on  drink. 

During  the  first  year  of  the  conflict  the  War  De- 
partment refused  to  allow  temperance  documents  to  be 
distributed  through  official  channels.  This  attitude, 
however,  was  reversed  in  1863,  ^^^  ^  million  copies  of 
an  address  prepared  by  E.  C.  Delaven  of  New  York, 
and  endorsed  by  such  men  as  General  Winfield  Scott 
and  General  Dix,  were  distributed  among  the  troops 
through  the  army  posts. 

The  office  of  sutler  was  finally  abolished  by  the 
Act  approved  July  28,  1866.  In  this  same  Act  the  sub- 
sistence department  of  the  army  was  established,  which 
has  since  been  the  channel  through  which  supplies 

*     Marsh,  p.  335. 

t  Ellsworth  was  exceedingly  popular  and,  after  his 
death,  "The  Ellsworth  Pledge"  was  circulated  among  sol- 
diers and  extensively  signed  by  them. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  143 

have  been  distributed  to  the  troops.  This  Act  was 
modified  by  the  joint  resolution  of  March  30,  1867, 
which  authorized  traders  to  remain  at  certain  ^rmy 
posts.  This  resolution  was  re-enacted  July  15,  1870, 
in  a  form  by  which  the  Secretary  of  War  was  "author- 
ized to  permit  one  or  more  trading  posts  to  be  estab- 
lished and  maintained  at  any  military  post  on  the 
frontier  not  in  the  vicinity  of  any  city  or  town,  when 
he  believed  such  an  establishment  is  needed  for  the 
accommodation  of  emigrants,  freighters,  or  other  citi- 
zens." It  was  never  authoritatively  determined  wheth- 
er or  not  the  Act  of  March  19,  1862,  eliminating  intoxi- 
cating liquors  from  the  supplies  of  the  sutlers,  applied 
to  the  post-traders.  But  the  War  Department  was 
very  "liberal"  in  its  treatment  of  the  post-traders,  who 
lost  no  time  in  acquiring  a  malodorous  reputation. 
They  sold  all  sorts  of  intoxicants  at  their  posts,  which 
degenerated  into  common  saloons,  frequently  saloons 
of  a  low  character.  At  this  period,  and  for  many  years 
thereafter,  the  War  Department  construed  the  term 
"intoxicating  liquors"  to  mean  distilled  spirits  only, 
and  not  to  include  ale,  beer  or  wine. 

In  1875  Congress  placed  in  the  hands  of  the  Pres- 
ident, instead  of  the  Secretary  of  War,  the  power  "to 
make  and  publish  regulations  for  the  government  of 
the  army  in  accordance  with  existing  laws."  This  feat- 
ure of  the  law  is  still  in  force.  It  was  under  the  au- 
thority of  this  Act  that  President  Hayes,  on  the  recom- 
mendation of  General  Nelson  A.  Miles,  issued  his  fa- 


144         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

mous  order,  *  "to  prevent  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liq- 
uors as  a  beverage  at  the  camps,  forts  and  other  posts 
of  the  army."  This  order  produced  a  healthy  eflfect 
during  the  administration  of  President  Hayes,  but  af-. 
terward,  under  the  War  Department  holding  that  beer 
and  wine  were  not  ''intoxicating  liquors,"  old  condi- 
tions were  somewhat  revived.  The  trading  posts  re- 
lapsed into  the  old  time  saloons,  chiefly  for  the  sale  of 
beer.  The  term  "light  wines"  is  a  military  fiction. 
Wines  always  have  been  practically  unknown  in  the 
army,  except  in  the  officers'  clubs.  The  soldiers  drank 
rum,  whisky  or  beer.f 

Under  previous  legislation  and  orders,  the  ardent 
spirits  had  been  pretty  well  driven  out  of  the  army,  but 

*     The  following  is  the  text  of  this  order: 
"Executive  Mansion, 
"Washington,  Feb.  22,   1881. 

"In  view  of  the  well-known  fact  that  the  sale  of  intox- 
icating liquors  in  the  army  of  the  United  States  is  the  cause 
of  much  demoralization  among  both  officers  and  men,  and 
that  it  gives  rise  to  a  large  proportion  of  the  cases  before 
the  general  and  garrison  courts-martial,  involving  great  ex- 
pense and  serious  injury  to  the  service 

"It  is  therefore  directed  that  the  Secretary  of  War  take 
suitable  steps,  as  far  as  practically  consistent  with  vested 
rights,  to  prevent  the  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  as  a  bever- 
age at  the  camps,  forts  and  other  posts  of  the  army. 

"R.  B.  HAYES." 

t  The  writer  has  personally  inspected  more  than  one 
hundred  army  canteens,  situated  all  the  way  from  Portland, 
Maine,  to  the  Philippine  Islands,  and  has  never  been  able  to 
see  or  learn  of  any  wine  in  these  concerns. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  145 

under  the  rulings  of  the  War  Department  the  same  old 
snake  re-entered  in  the  form  of  beer.  The  serpent 
crept  into  the  camp  in  a  very  subtile  and  attractive 
form — in  what  became  known  as  the  "army  canteen/' 
The  "outside  resort,"  the  dive  adjacent  to  or  near  the 
army  camp,  was  a  pest  from  the  beginning.  This  is 
true  in  a  greater  or  less  degree  of  every  considerable 
army  camp  that  has  ever  existed  in  civilized  armies,  in 
every  country.  Savage  and  heathen  armies  only  ap- 
pear to  have  done  entirely  without  these  accessories 
of  war.  The  beginning  of  the  canteen  had  its  germ  at 
Vancouver  Barracks,  at  what  was  then  Washington 
Territory,  about  1882.  The  establishment  was  merely 
a  room  fitted  up  with  things  necessary  for  amusement, 
a  lunch  counter,  etc.,  and  was  provided  by  the  ladies  of 
the  garrison.  Two  years  later,  December  15,  1884,  a 
similar  institution  was  established  at  Ft.  Sidney,  Ne- 
braska, by  Colonel  Henry  A.  Morrow.  In  both  of 
these  concerns  neither  beer  nor  any  other  form  of 
intoxicants  was  allowed.  Both  were  acknowledged 
successes  from  the  beginning.  After  they  had  been  in 
operation  for  a  year  or  so,  beer  was  introduced,  at  first 
on  a  small  scale.  Other  army  posts  took  up  with  the 
idea,  the  W^ar  Department  offering  no  objection,  as, 
under  its  own  policy,  beer  and  wine  were  officially  rec- 
ognized as  non-intoxicating  beverages.  On  October 
25,  1888,  an  order  was  issued  from  the  War  Depart- 
ment for  canteens  to  discontinue  the  sale  of  beer  at 
posts  where  there  was  a  post-trader.  The  order  was 
issued  on  the  ground  that  they  conflicted  with  rights  of 


146         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

the  post-trader.     The  beer  canteen,  as  an  institution, 
was  officially  recognized  and  established  by  an  order* 

*     The  following  is  the  text  of  this  order: 

"i.  Canteens  may  be  established  at  military  posts  where 
there  are  no  post-traders,  for  supplying  the  troops,  at  moder- 
ate prices  with  such  articles  as  may  be  deemed  necessary  for 
their  use,  entertainment  and  comfort;  also  for  affording  them 
the  requisite  facilities  for  gymnastic  exercises,  billiards  and 
other  proper  games.  The  commanding  officer  may  set  apart 
for  the  purpose  of  the  canteen  any  suitable  rooms  that  can 
be  spared,  such  rooms,  whenever  practicable,  to  be  in  the 
same  building  with  the  library  or  reading  rooms. 

"2.  The  sale  or  use  of  ardent  spirits  in  canteens  is 
strictly  prohibited,  but  the  commanding  officer  is  authorized 
to  permit  wines  and  light  beer  to  be  sold  therein  by  the  drink 
on  week  days,  and  in  a  room  used  for  no  other  purpose, 
whenever  he  is  satisfied  that  the  giving  to  the  men  the  op- 
portunity of  obtaining  such  beverages  within  the  post  limits 
has  the  effect  of  preventing  them  from  resorting  for  strong 
intoxicants  to  places  without  such  limits,  and  tends  to  pro- 
mote temperance  and  discipline  among  them.  The  practice 
of  what  is  termed  as  treating  should  be  discouraged  under  all 
circumstances. 

"3.  Gambling,  or  playing  any  game  for  money  or  other 
things  of  value,  is  forbidden. 

"4.  Civilians,  other  than  those  employed  and  resident 
on  the  military  reservation,  are  not  to  be  permitted  to  enter 
the  rooms  of  the  canteen  without  the  authority  of  the  com- 
manding officer.  Commanders  of  canteen  posts  situated  in 
states  (or  surrounded  by  communities)  not  tolerating  the 
sale  of  intoxicants  will  not  permit  the  residents  or  members 
thereof  to  visit  the  canteen  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining 
beer  or  wine. 

"5.     Each  canteen  is  to  be  managed  by  a  suitable  officer, 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  147 

(General  Order  No.  10),  dated  February  i,  1889,  issued 
by  Secretaryof  War  William  C.  Endicott.*  Mr.  Endi- 
cott  carried  out  his  own  logic  by  authorizing  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  beer  "speakeasy"  in  the  War  Depart- 
ment building  itself,  in  connection  with  the  depart- 
ment restaurant.  In  the  following  year,  1890,  Mr.  Red- 
field  Proctor,  Secretary  of  War  under  President  Har- 
rison, urged  a  clause  in  the  army  appropriation  bill, 
setting  apart  the  sum  of  $100,000  for  fitting  up  and 
e(^iuipping  these  military  beer  canteens.  This  bold 
proposition  was  strenuously  fought  by  Senators  Blair, 
Hale,  Frye  and  others.  A  part  of  the  debate  was  an 
exposure  of  the  War  Department  policy  of  establishing 
beer  canteens  in  prohibition  territory.  The  appropria- 
tion asked  for  was  not  adopted,  but  the  bill  which  was 
approved  June  13,  1890,  contained  a  provision  that  "no 
alcoholic  liquors,  wine  or  beer  shall  be  sold  or  supplied 
to  enlisted  men  in  any  canteen  or  post-trader's  store 

not  a  regimental  staff  officer,  who  shall  be  selected  by  the 
post  commander  and  be  designated  as  *in  charge  of  the 
canteen.*  The  officer  will  be  assisted  by  a  canteen  steward, 
who  may  be  a  retired  non-commissioned  officer,  and  by  as 
many  other  enlisted  men,  having  regard  to  the  strength  of  the 
garrison  and  business  of  the  canteen,  as  the  commanding 
officer  may  deem  necessary." 

*  Eventually,  the  room  set  apart  solely  for  the  sale  of 
beer  became  known  as  the  "canteen,"  while  the  whole  estab- 
lishment was  called  the  "post-exchange."  This  distinction 
began  to  be  made  officially  by  the  Department  in  1892,  but 
was  more  fully  elaborated  in  General  Orders  No.  46,  issued  in 
1895. 


148    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

or  in  any  room  or  building  of  any  garrison  or  military 
post  in  any  state  or  territory  in  which  the  sale  of  al- 
coholic liquors,  wine  or  beer,  is  prohibited  by  law." 
This  injunction  of  Congress,  however,  was  ignored  at 
most  of  such  posts  under  one  subterfuge  or  another. 

By  the  Act  of  January  28,  1893,*  the  post-trader- 
ship^  in  connection  with  the  military  service  were  com- 
pletely abolished.  This  opened  the  way  for  the  com- 
plete establishment  of  the  army  canteen. 

What  the  canteen  and  post-exchange  should  be, 
and  rules  for  their  conduct,  were  officially  set  forth  in 
General  Orders  No.  46,  of  1895.  The  "exchange  fea- 
tures" were  officially  described  as  follows : 

"An  exchange  doing  its  full  work  should  embrace  the 
following  sections:  (a)  A  well-stocked  general  store  in 
which  such  goods  are  kept  as  are  usually  required  at  mili- 
tary posts,  and  as  extensive  in  number  and  variety  as  condi- 
tions will  justify;  (b)  a  well-kept  lunch-counter  supplied  with 
as  great  a  variety  of  viands  as  circumstances  permit,  such  as 
tea,  coffee,  cocoa,  non-alcoholic  drinks,  soup,  fish,  cooked 
and  canned  meats,  sandwiches,  pastries,  etc.;  (c)  a  canteen  at 
which,  under  the  conditions  hereinafter  set  forth,  beer  and 
light  wines  by  the  drink,  and  tobacco  may  be  sold;  (d)  read- 
ing and  recreation  rooms,  supplied  with  books  and  periodicals 
and  other  reading  matter,  billiard  and  pool  tables,  bowling 
alley  and  facilities  for  other  indoor  games,  as  well  as  appara- 
tus for  outdoor  sports  and  exercises,  such  as  cricket,  football, 
baseball,  tennis,  etc.;  a  well-equipped  gymnasium,  possess- 
ing also  the  requisite  paraphernalia  for  outdoor  athletics. 
At  small  posts  it  may  be  impracticable  to  maintain  all  of 
these  sections,  but  at  every  exchange  there  should  be  no  less 

*     2^  Stat  L.,  426;  2  Supp.  Rev.  Stat.  0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  149 

than  two  departments — the  refreshment,  embracing  store, 
lunch  counters  and  canteen,  and  the  recreation,  which  in- 
cludes all  the  other  branches." 

Section  10  dealt  with  the  liquor,  or  "canteen"  feature, 
and  read: 

''The  sale  or  use  of  ardent  spirits  in  any  branch  of  the 
exchange  is  strictly  prohibited;  but  on  the  recommendation  of 
the  exchange  council  the  commanding  officer  may  permit 
beer  and  light  wines  to  be  sold  at  the  canteen  by  the  drink 
whenever  he  is  satisfied  that  giving  to  the  troops  the  oppor- 
tunity of  obtaining  such  beverage  within  the  post  limits  will 
prevent  them  from  resorting  for  strong  intoxicants  to  places 
without  such  limits,  and  tends  to  promote  temperance  and 
discipline  among  them.  Should  the  commanding  officer  not 
approve  the  recommendation  of  the  exchange  council,  it  will 
be  submitted  for  final  decision  to  the  department  command- 
er. The  canteen  must  be  in  a  room  used  for  no  other  pur- 
pose, and  when  practicable  in  a  building  apart  from  that  in 
which  the  recreation  and  reading  rooms  are  located;  the  sale 
of  beer  must  be  limited  to  week  days,  and  the  beer  consumed 
upon  the  premises.  The  practice  known  as  'treating'  will 
not  be  permitted." 

The  official  status  of  the  beer  canteen  feature  of 
the  post  exchange  was  made  complete  in  a  decision  of 
the  United  States  Court  of  Claims  *  rendered  June  5, 
1899,  i"  which  it  was  decided  that  post-exchanges,  be- 
ing under  complete  control  of  the  Secretary  of  War  as 
governmental  agencies,  were  not  subject  to  special  tax 
as  "retail  liquor  dealers."  Up  to  that  time  these  taxes 
had  been  paid  on  these  beer  canteens. 

At  first  little  attention  was  paid  to  the  matter  by 

*  No.  20923;  Thomas  B.  Dugan,  vs.  U.  S.:  Promulgated 
June  20,  1899,  Treasury  Decisions,  Vol.  I,  No.  25,  p.  1171. 


150         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

temperance  leaders,  but  the  institution  soon  began  to 
be  subjected  to  severe  criticism  in  army  circles.  The 
Army  and  Navy  Journal,  The  United  Service  Maga- 
zine and  other  periodicals  published  various  accounts 
of  the  evil  tendencies  of  the  army  beer  saloons.  "Com- 
manding officers  have  generally  agreed  with  me  that 
it  would  be  well  to  abolish  the  sale  of  beer  entirely  and 

to  substitute  for  it  other  beverages Under  the 

present  system  soldiers  seem  to  be  more  generally  led 
to  drink  and  to  offenses  that  go  with  drinking  than 
under  the  old  sutler  and  post-trader  system,"  declared 
General  O.  O.  Howard  (1890),  in  one  of  his  official 
reports.  **The  exchange  with  an  open  saloon  would 
be  a  first  rate  thing  to  recommend  for  adoption  in  the 
army  of  the  enemy,"  wrote  Col.  (now  General)  Henry 
C.  Corbin  in  a  report  to  General  McCook.  "It  is  for  all 
intents  and  purposes,  simply  an  authorized  beer  saloon 
kept  open  under  the  auspices  and  with  the  approval 
of  the  government,"  protested  Surgeon  General  George 
M.  Sternberg*  in  1893.  The  criticisms  of  the  army 
officers  were  taken  up  by  the  temperance  organiza- 
tions, and  a  vigorous  agitation  followed.  This  agita- 
tion f  was  immensely  augmented  by  the  scandals  at- 
tending the  administration  of  the  army  beer  canteen 
during  the  early  part  of  the  war  with  Spain  in  1898. 
The  widespread  publication  of  the  drunkenness  in  the 


*     Report  Secretary  of  War,  1893,  p.  532. 
t     It   was   in    the   midst   of   this   agitation    that    General 
Miles,  July  2,  1898,  issued  the- following  as  a  general  order: 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  151 

camps  of  Alger,  Chickamauga,  Mobile  and  Tampa  in 
connection  with  the  canteens  aroused  the  country,  and 
led  to  Congress  enacting  the  following  in  the  early 
part  of  1899: 

"That  no  officer  or  private  soldier  shall  be  detailed  to  sell 
intoxicating  drinks,  as  a  bartender  or  otherwise,  in  any  post 
exchange  or  canteen,  nor  shall  any  person  be  required  or  al- 
lowed to  sell  liquors  in  any  encampment  or  fort  or  on  any 
premises  used  for  military  purposes   by  the  United   States; 

'The  army  is  engaged  in  active  service  under  climatic 
conditions  which  it  has  not  before  experienced. 

"In  order  that  it  may  perform  its  most  difficult  and  la- 
borious duties  with  the  least  practical  loss  from  sickness,  the 
utmost  care  consistent  with  prompt  and  effective  service  must 
be  exercised  by  all,  especially  by  officers. 

'The  history  of  other  armies  has  demonstrated  that  in  a 
hot  climate  abstinence  from  the  use  of  intoxicating  drink  is 
essential   to   continued   health   and   efficiency. 

"Commanding  officers  of  all  grades  and  officers  of  the 
medical  staff  will  carefully  note  the  effect  of  the  use  of  such 
light  beverages — wine  and  beer — as  are  permitted  to  be  sold 
at  the  post  and  camp  exchanges,  and  the  commanders  of  all 
independent  commands  are  enjoined  to  restrict  or  to  en- 
tirely prohibit,  the  sale  of  such  beverages,  if  the  welfare  of 
the  troops  or  the  interest  of  the  service  requires  such  action. 

"In  this  most  important  hour  of  the  nation's  history  it  is 
due  the  government  from  all  those  in  its  service  that  they 
should  not  only  render  the  most  earnest  efforts  for  its  honor 
and  welfare,  but  that  their  full  physical  and  intellectual  force 
should  be  given  to  their  public  duties,  uncontaminated  by  any 
indulgence  that  shall  dim,  stultify,  weaken  or  impair  their 
faculties  and  strength  in  any  particular. 

"Officers  of  every  grade,  by  example  as  well  as  by  au- 
thority   will    contribute   to    the    enforcement    of   the    order." 


i 


152  THE    FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

and  the  Secretary  of  War  is  hereby  directed  to  issue  such 
general  orders  as  may  be  necessary  to  carry  the  provisions 
of  this  section  into  full  force  and  effect." 

The  administration  in  power,  for  some  reason,  was 
exceedingly  friendly  to  the  canteen  and  sought  a  plan 
to  nullify  the  prohibition  of  Congress.  The  question 
of  the  intoxicating  quality  of  wine  and  beer,  a  question 
that  has  been  uniformly  affirmed  in  all  the  court  decis- 
ions for  forty  years,  was  submitted  to  Judge  Advocate 
General  Lieber  for  an  opinion.  The  opinion  was 
promptly  given  that  both  were  intoxicating  and  were 
within  the  prohibition  of  the  Act.  The  matter  was 
next  submitted  to  Attorney  General  Griggs,  who  pro- 
voked much  censure  and  ridicule  by  rendering  an  elab- 
orate opinion  in  which  he  held  that  while  the  law  for- 
bade soldiers  from  selling  in  the  canteen,  it  did  not 
forbid  civilians  from  doing  so.  As  to  the  words,  "nor 
shall  any  person  be  required  or  allowed  to  sell  such 
liquors  in  any  encampment,"  etc.,  the  Attorney  Gen- 
eral ruled  that  the  Act  merely  prohibited  civilians  from 
selling  outside  the  canteen,  but  did  not  apply  to  civil- 
ians selling  within  the  canteen.  The  War  Department, 
accordingly,  merely  replaced  their  soldier  bartenders 
with  civilians  and  continued  their  regimental  saloons. 
This  rather  bald  subterfuge  exasperated  the  people 
and  stirred  up  Congress  to  pass  a  new  law,  which  it 
did  (Act  approved  February  2,  1901)  in  the  following 
language : 

"The  sale  or  dealing  in  beer,  wine   or  any  intoxicating 
liquors  by  any  person  in  any  post  exchange  or  canteen  or 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  153 

army  transport  or  upon  any  premises  used  for  military  pur- 
poses by  the  United  States,  is  hereby  prohibited.  The  Sec- 
retary of  War  is  hereby  directed  to  carry  the  provisions  of 
this  section  into  full  force  and  effect." 

The  brewers'  organizations,  aided  by  a  section  of 
the  army  establishment,  made  a  desperate  effort  to  re- 
store the  army  beer  saloon  at  the  subsequent  session 
of  Congress.  So  systematic  had  been  the  efforts  to 
make  the  new  law  a  failure  and  to  advertise  and  mag- 
nify the  occasional  debauch  of  soldiers  who  had  accu- 
mulated their  appetites  under  the  beer  saloon  system, 
that  these  efforts  might  have  been  successful  had  it 
not  been  for  General  Miles,  the  Commanding  General, 
who  threw  the  whole  weight  of  his  influence  in  behalf 
of  the  prohibition.  At  subsequent  sessions  of  Con- 
gress, these  attempts  to  restore  the  beer  regime  have 
been  renewed,  but  the  success  of  the  new  step  has  be- 
come .so  apparent  that  the  wishes  of  the  beer  dealers 
have  been  easily  defeated. 

The  prohibition  forces  met  these  attempts  to  null- 
ify the  law  prohibiting  army  saloons  with  constructive 
proposals  designed  to  make  the  new  legislation  suc- 
cessful. These  measures,  chiefly  promoted  by  the 
American  Anti-Saloon  League,  consisted  largely  of 
appropriations  for  the  construction,  equipment  and 
maintenance  of  suitable  buildings  at  the  various  army 
posts  to  provide  for  the  amusement  and  recreation  of 
the  enlisted  men.  These  special  appropriations  began 
with  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1903,  and  have  been 
as  follows: 


154       'THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Fiscal  Year.  Appropriation. 

1903 $500,000 

1904 500,000 

1905 500,000 

1906 333.500 

1907 350,000 

1908 397.500 

1909 400,000 

1910 215,500 

In  addition  to  these  special  appropriations,  the 
efforts  of  the  Prohibitionists  resulted  in  various 
improvements  in  the  army  ration,  provision  being 
made,  at  public  expense,  for  various  items  of  luxury  or 
necessity  to  provide  for  which  the  profits  of  the  army 
saloons  had  formerly  been  depended  upon. 

There  was  no  established  rule  in  the  matter  of 
spirit  rations  in  the  Confederate  armies.  The  subject 
was  left  to  the  discretion  of  the  Department  com- 
manders, who  followed  no  uniform  practice.  General 
James  Longstreet  thus  described  the  practices  of  the 
Confederate  chiefs  in  this  respect : 

"I  don't  remember  now  the  Confederate  laws  in  regard 
to  the  issue  of  whisky  as  a  ration.  Think  there  was  no  law 
on  the  subject  but  the  regulations,  I  believe,  were  similar  to 
those  of  the  old  army,  where  it  was  usual  to  issue  a  gill  of 
whisky  to  each  soldier  after  severe  work  and  exposure, 
when  the  whisky  was  on  hand.  But  it  was  never  regarded 
as  a  necessary  part  of  the  ration,  and  when  transportation 
was  limited,  as  it  is  always  in  moving  armies,  this  part  of  the 
ration  was  left,  so  that  the  regulation  was  little  better  than  a 
dead  letter:     We  adopted  the  old  regulations,  and  this  with 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  155 

them,  and  whenever  the  stimulants  were  to  be  had  after  a  se- 
vere day's  march  through  wind  and  rain,  the  (spirit)  ration 
was  issued.  Early  in  the  war,  on  a  few  occasions  on  reaching 
a  town,  this  part  of  the  ration  was  occasionally  found,  and 
when  found,  after  severe  drenching  and  marching  or  expo- 
sure in  the  rain,  working  on  the  roads,  or  in  the  mud,  our 
generals  would  order  the  issuance  of  this  ration.  I  do  not 
think  it  was  ever  considered  by  us  as  rations."* 

THE  NAVY. — Rum  was  the  traditional  beverage 
of  the  sailor.  The  Continental  Congress  in  1775, 
which  first  fixed  the  army  ration  at  one  quart  of 
spruce  beer  or  cider,  fixed  the  navy  ration,  on  No- 
vember 28,  1775,  at  one-half  pint  of  rum  per  man  per  day, 
with  the  alternative  of  a  quart  of  beer.  The  Act  of  1801 
did  not  allow  the  alternative  beer  ration.  This  ration  re- 
mained unchanged  until  the  temperance  propaganda 
had  assumed  formidable  proportions.  As  early  as 
1831  the  Secretary  of  the  Navy  expressed  his  convic- 
tionf  that  the  use  made  of  ardent  spirits  was  one  of 
the  greatest  curses,  and  declared  his  intention  to 
recommend  a  change  with  regard  to  it  in  the  navy. 
The  Navy  Department,  on  the  year  following,  tried 
the  experiment  with  a  schooner  manned  by  a  crew 
without  the  usual  supply  of  rum.  The  schooner  itself 
was  named  Experiment.J  During  the  few  years  fol- 
lowing, a  widespread  temperance  propaganda  took 
place  in  marine  circles,  especially    in    the    merchant 

*     Letter  written  to  Prof.  H.  A.   Scomp,  Dec.   12,   1886; 
Scomp,  King  Alcohol  in  the  Realm  of  King  Cotton,  p.  560. 
t     Report  American  Temperance  Union,  1838. 
•    t     Sixth  Report  American  Temperance  Society,  p.  13. 


156         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

service.  The  spirit  ration  was  abandoned  on  merchant 
ships,  coasters  and  whalers  everywhere.  Sailors' 
homes,  Bethel  churches  and  mariners'  temperance 
societies  sprang  up  in  every  port.  At  Charleston, 
South  Carolina,  four  hundred  sailors  signed  the  pledge. 
In  New  York  City  fourteen  hundred  seamen  did  like- 
wise. The  entire  crew  of  the  United  States  frigate 
Columbia  signed  the  pledge  in  a  body,  with  Captain 
Parker,  the  chaplain  and  the  purser  ia  the  lead. 
Practically  the  entire  crew  of  the  Ohio  did  the  same.* 
This  movement  reached  its  height  in  1842,  and  re- 
sulted in  Congress  reducing  the  rum  ration  of  the 
navy  to  one  gill  per  day,  and  forbidding  even  that  be- 
ing issued  to  persons  under  twenty-one  years  of  age. 
Besides  this,  the  alternative  of  half  a  pint  of  wine, 
butter,  meal,  raisins,  dried  fruit,  pickles,  molasses,  or 
the  value  in  money  was  allowed.  The  agitation,  how- 
ever, continued  both  in  and  out  of  Congress  for  the 
abolition  of  the  spirit  ration  and  also  for  the  abolition 
of  the  flogging  system.  In  presenting  several  peti- 
tions to  Congress  asking  for  these  reforms,  in  1847, 
Senator  William  H.  Seward,  of  New  York,  afterward 
Secretary  of  State,  said : 

"I  take  this  occasion  to  express  my  concurrence  in  the 
sentiment  expressed  by  the  Senator  from  Massachusetts  in 
relation  to  this  subject,  and  to  say  that,  in  my  judgment, 
whoever  is  allowed  the  privilege  of  administering  intoxicating 
liquors  to  others  daily,  and  of  inflicting  upon  them  corporal 
chastisement   for   offenses,   has   it   in   his   power   to   exercise 

*     Report    American    Temperance   Union,    1842. 

0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  157 

over  them  the  control  that  a  master  exercises  over  his  slaves. 
I  do  not  believe  it  necessary  that  such  a  relation  should  be  es- 
tablished either  in  the  army  or  navy;  and  since  it  has  been 
sometimes  said  that  the  practice  of  flogging  in  the  navy  must 
be  continued,  because  no  substitute  has  been  found  for  it,  I 
beg  leave  to  say,  and  your  own  recollections,  Mr.  President, 
will  bear  witness  to  the  fact,  that  in  the  Penitentiary  system 
in  the  State  of  New  York,  the  practice  of  corporal  punish- 
ment has  been  abolished,  and  that  discipline  has  been  main- 
tained with  as  much  success  with  regard  to  labor  and  moral 
conduct,  as  when  corporal  punishment  prevailed."* 

This  agitation,  while  it  led  to  the  abolition  of 
flogging,  did  not  immediately  result  in  the  abolition 
of  the  spirit  ration.  The  Act  of  1861  re-enacted  the 
one  gill  per  day  ration  of  1842.  In  July,  1862,  however, 
Congress  abolished  entirely  the  naval  spirit  ration.f 
It  was  largely  due  to  the  influence  of  Admiral  Farragut 
and    Admiral    Alexander    H.    Foote    that    this    was 


*  Fourteenth  Annual  Report,  American  Temperance 
Union,  p.   14. 

t     The   following  is   the   text   of  the   law: 

"That  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  September,  1862, 
the  spirit  ration  in  the  navy  of  the  United  States  shall  for- 
ever cease,  and  thereafter  no  distilled  spirituous  liquors  shall 
be  admitted  on  board  of  vessels-of-war  except  as  medical 
officers  of  such  vessels  direct,  to  be  used  only  for  medical  pur- 
poses. 

"From  and  after  the  first  day  of  September  next  there 
shall  be  allowed  and  paid  to  each  person  in  the  navy  now  en- 
titled to  the  spirit  ration  five  cents  per  day  in  commutation 
and  lieu  thereof,  which  shall  be  in  addition  to  the  present 
pay." 


158    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

brought  about.  Admiral  Foote*  was  conspicuously 
active  with  voice  and  pen  in  bringing  about  this  re- 
form. While  this  Act  of  Congress  settled  forever  the 
question  of  the  spirit  ration  in  the  United  States  Navy, 
beer  crept  in  in  its  place.  At  naval  stations  beer  can- 
teens existed  after  very  much  the  same  pattern  as  the 
beer  canteens  in  the  army.  On  ships  it  was  the  prac- 
tice to  allow  beer  to  be  brought  on  board  at  certain 
fixed  hours  for  sale  under  the  supervision  of  the  ship's 
police.  Such  sales  were  allowed  only  to  those  who 
were  "deserving  of  a  privilege."  This  continued  until 
February  3,  1899,  when  John  D.  Long,  then  Secretary 
of  the  Navy,  issued  the  following  order  (General  Order 
No.  508)  wholly  abolishing  this  beer  traffic  both  on 
shipboard  and  at  naval  stations : 

"After  mature  deliberation  the  Department  has  decided 
that  it  is  for  the  best  interest  of  the  service  that  the  sale  or 

*  When  captain  of  the  United  States  Brig  Perry,  Foote, 
under  date  of  January  2,  1852,  wrote  the  following  to  Rev.  J. 
Spalding: 

"I  do  not  claim  that  any  one  should  be  privileged  by  the 
Government  more  than  the  other.  It  is  not  a  question  wheth- 
er officer  or  sailor  shall  drink  grog,  but  whether  the  Govern- 
ment shall  furnish  it  to  any  in  its  employ. 

"Strike  whisky  from  the  ration,  and  I  have  no  apprehen- 
sion but  that  the  discipline  of  the  service  may  be  restored 
without  the  cats,  as  moral  means  may  then  be  effectively  used. 
But  if  the  Government  continues  to  send  out  grog,  the  cats 
should  be  restored  as  the  most  effectual  corrective  of  its  de- 
basing influence." — Journal  of  the  American  Temperance 
Union,  April,  1852;  Sailors'  Magazine,  March  1852. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  159 

issue  to  enlisted  men  of  malt  or  other  alcoholic  liquors  on 
board  ships  of  the  navy  or  within  the  limits  of  naval  stations, 
be  prohibited, 

"Therefore,  after  the  receipt  of  this  order,  commanding 
officers  and  commandants  are  forbidden  to  allow  any  malt  or 
other  alcoholic  liquor  to  be  sold  or  issued  to  enlisted  men, 
either  on  board  ship  or  within  the  limits  of  navy  yards,  naval 
stations  or  marine  barracks,  except  in  the  medical  depart- 
ment." 

After  more  than  a  hundred  years  of  experience,  all 
forms  of  intoxicating  liquors  have  been  forever  abol- 
ished from  the  Navy  of  the  United  States.  The  dram 
drinking,  boisterous,  rollicking,  drunken  marine  has 
become  a  thing  of  the  past.  Naval  warfare  has  be- 
come a  high  science  in  which  the  carousing,  tipsy 
brawler  has  given  way  to  the  educated,  up-to-date 
mathematical  gunner  and  engineer.  In  this  modern 
naval  warfare,  the  patron  of  the  rum  ration  and  the 
beer  hall  has  no  place  save  perhaps  to  scrub  the  decks, 
carry  slops  and  shovel  coal.  The  spirit  ration  was 
thoroughly  tried  and  discarded  with  other  antiquated, 
worn  out  failures.  The  navy  and  the  army  beer  sa- 
loons were  also  thrown  onto  the  scrap  heap  of  the 
past  for  no  other  reason  than  that  something  better 
was  found  to  take  their  place.  The  alcohol  was  put 
into  smokeless  powder  to  be  used  in  blowing  up  the 
enemy  rather  than  into  our  own  soldiers  to  rot  their 
bodies  and  befuddle  their  brains. 


The  Aborigines. 


CHAPTER  VI. 

"Whether  serpents'  teeth  were  sown  here  and  sprung  up 
men;  whether  men  and  women  dropped  from  the  clouds  upon 
this  Atlantic  island;  whether  the  Almighty  created  them  here, 
or  whether  they  emigrated  from  Europe,  are  questions  of  no 
moment  to  the  present  or  future  happiness  of  man." — Letter 
of  John  Adams  to  Thomas  Jeflferson,  June  28,  1812.  Works 
of  John  Adams,  Vol.  X,  p.  17. 

Bishop  Whipple  has  estimated  that  the  Indian 
wars  have  cost  the  United  States  five  hundred  mil- 
lions of  dollars,  besides  the  appalling  cost  in  blood 
and  suffering.  According  to  the  same  authority,  it 
has  cost  an  average  of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars 
to  kill  an  Indian. 

Since  the  discovery  of  America  and  its  coloniza- 
tion by  Europeans,  practically  every  Indian  war,  with 
its  fearful  record  of  human  suffering  the  bare  mention 
of  which  brings  a  chill  of  horror,  has  been  caused, 
directly  or  indirectly,  by  the  traffic  in  intoxicating 
liquors.  A  drunken  Indian  commits  an  outrage,  upon 
which  infuriated  whites  retaliate  with  a  similar  out- 
rage; Indians  are  robbed  of  their  lands,  ponies  and 
blankets  through  being  intoxicated  with  strong  drink ; 
in  some  variety  of  one  of  these  transactions  is  found 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  i6i 

the  germ  of  nearly  every   Indian   slaughter  that  has 
disgraced  the  history  of  American  colonization. 

With  the  exception  of  the  Indians  of  Mexico  and 
Central  America,  and  a  few  tribes  in  the  far  South- 
west of  what  is  now  the  United  States,  the  American 
Indians  were  almost  wholly  ignorant  of  intoxicating 
liquors  at  the  time  of  the  discovery  of  America  by 
Columbus.  The  Indians  of  Northern  Vermont  had 
some  knowledge  of  making  a  variety  of  beer  from 
fermented  corn  (Williams,  Hist.  Vt.  p.  190).  Doctor 
Dorchester  says  (Liquor  Problem  p.  115)  that  some  of 
these  tribes  made  a  mild  fermented  beverage  from  the 
sap  of  maple  trees.  These  beverages,  however,  were 
but  slightly  used.  The  Hurons,  among  the  Central 
Great  Lakes,  made  a  weak  beer  by  throwing  unripe 
corn  into  a  pool  of  stagnant  water,  where  it  was  left 
for  two  or  three  months.  From  this  decayed  product 
they  made  a  thin  fermented  gruel  which  was  used 
chiefly  in  important  tribal  feasts.  The  Indians  of  the 
Gulf  states  made  a  large  use  of  an  intoxicating  bev- 
erage called  'The  Black  Drink"  by  the  whites,  but 
known  to  the  Indian  tribes  as  asse,  assinola,  assini, 
or  yahola.*     This  beverage  was  a  steeped  and  fer- 


*  Osceola,  the  name  of  the  famous  Seminole  chieftain, 
is  an  English  corruption  of  "asseseholar"  the  Seminole  dia- 
lect expression  for  "black  drink."  Osceola's  wife,  who  had  a 
trace  of  negro  blood,  was  kidnapped  by  white  men  and  taken 
away  into  slavery  in  the  presence  of  the  Indian  Agent, 
General  Thompson. 


i62         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

merited  decoction  of  the  cassia  plant  (ilex  cassice  or 
ilex  vomitoria).  Though  this  beverage  was  slightly 
intoxicating,  it  was  a  violent  emetic,  and  used  only  in 
ceremonials,  conspicuously  in  the  Busk-e-tau  of  the 
Creeks.  While  all  of  these  beverages  were  somewhat 
alcoholic,  they  were  almost  wholly  unknown  outside 
of  religious  ceremonials. 

It  was  not  until  the  coming  of  the  white  man 
that  drunkenness  was  known  to  the  aborigines,  save 
in  the  far  Southwest.  At  the  very  first  meeting  of  the 
French  and  Indians,  which  took  place  on  the  Island 
of  Orleans,  in  the  St.  Lawrence  River,  in  1535,  Jacques 
Cartier  spread  a  feast  of  bread  and  wine  for  Chief 
Donnaconna  and  his  Indians.  At  the  first  interview 
of  Henry  Hudson,  the  Dutch  explorer,  with  the  Indi- 
ans, in  New  York  Harbor  in  1609,  a  drunken  carousal 
took  place.  The  Indians  became  drunk  on  a  bottle  of 
spirits  supplied  by  Hudson,  and  from  that  event  the 
Island  of  Manhattan,  on  which  New  York  stands,  took 
its  name.  It  became  known  in  the  Delaware  language 
as  Manahachtanienk,  which  is  equivalent  in  English 
to  "The-place-where-we-all-got-drunk."*  The  English 
corrupted  this  word  into  "Manhattan."  Likewise 
spirits  figured  conspicuously  in  the  first  meeting  of  the 
English  with  the  Indians  of  Massachusetts.  Shortly 
after  the  landing,  in  1620,  the  native  king,  Massasoit, 
visited  the  settlement  at  Plymouth,  where  the  gov- 

*  Heckwelder,  Memoirs,  Hist.  Society  of  Pa.  Vol.  XII, 
pp.  ^^,  262. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  163 

ernor  treated  him  to  a  military  salute  with  music  and 
a  "pot  of  strong  water."*  From  these  early  days  to 
the  present,  intoxicating  liquor  has  been  a  disturbing 
factor  in  most  of  the  dealings  of  the  white  man  with 
the  Indian. 

Another  contributing  source  of  trouble  between 
the  red  and  white  races  has  been  the  inability  of  either 
to  comprehend  the  view  point  and  ideals  of  the  other. 
The  Indian  is,  in  a  remarkable  degree,  a  religious  be- 
ing. Almost  every  act  of  his  life  is  a  religious  one. 
Every  Indian  council,  of  war  or  peace,  is  a  religious 
function,  accompanied  by  religious  ceremonials. 
Hunting  and  fishing  are  religious  acts.  Corn,  the 
emblem  of  life,  is  planted  and  harvested  with  sacred 
rites.  The  planting  of  corn  by  machinery  is  about  as 
confusing  to  the  Indian  as  administering  the  com- 
munion through  the  nozzle  of  a  steam  fire  engine 
would  be  to  the  white  man. 

In  the  Indian  mind,  it  was  God  who  first  made  the 
Four  Directions  which  hold  together  the  Cosmos. 
The  Spirit  of  the  South  Wind  presided  over  the  warm 
weather,  assisted  by  Thunder,  the  crow  and  the  plover. 
The  Spirit  of  the  North  Wind  came  with  his  wolves, 
gave  battle  to  and  drove  back  the  summer  days.  The 
Spirit  of  the  West  Wind  brought  the  storms.  His 
wings  hid  the  sun.  He  had  warred  with  and  over- 
thrown the  East  Wind,  the  God  of  the  Dawn,  on  the 

*  Purchas,  Pilgrims,  Part  IV,  Book  5;  Ames,  the  May- 
flower and  Her  Log,  p.  305. 


i64         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

plains  of  the  western  skies.  The  Moon  was  the  Wife 
of  the  Sun,  from  which  union  was  born  Fire,  the  Heart 
of  Being,  upon  which  depended  all  existence,  spiritual 
and  corporal.  Through  this  union  the  Master  of 
Breath,  Ruler  of  the  Winds,  built  the  Fire  of  Life,  in 
the  Indian  heart.  The  Circle  was  a  symbol  of  life. 
The  rain  was  the  falling  tears  of  Indians  in  Heaven. 
The  stars  had  their  quarrels.  The  comet  was  a  mes- 
senger of  awful  things.  The  Milky  Way  was  the 
pathway  of  the  dead  who  went  to  the  other  world  in  a 
stone  canoe.  On  the  way  they  stopped  to  eat  from  a 
gigantic  strawberry  on  a  beautiful  island.  Thence 
they  crossed  a  boiling  chasm  on  a  slippery  log.  Those 
who  fell  off  were  transformed  into  fishes.  The  firma- 
ment of  the  Heavens  was  domed  with  ice  against 
which  the  Serpent  God  coiled  his  back,  scraping  off 
the  ice  dust,  which  fell  as  snow.  The  Eclipse  was  a 
horrid  thing,  which  tried  to  eat  up  the  Sun,  to  be 
driven  away  by  the  warriors  with  their  bows  and  ar- 
rows. The  rainbow  was  a  great  serpent  whose  shiny 
scales  produced  the  colors.  An  eternal  bird,  mated  to 
the  Snake,  had  her  nest  upon  the  Sacred  Pipestone, 
and  was  incapable  of  reproducing  herself  because  the 
serpent,  her  mate,  destroyed  the  young  as  the  eggs 
were  hatched.  The  noise  of  their  destruction  was  the 
thunder  of  the  storm.  Another  gigantic  serpent  crept 
up  the  Mississippi  Valley  on  a  visit  to  the  Great  Lakes. 
A  great  river  was  formed  in  its  trail,  which  the  white 
man  calls  the  "Mississippi."  The  child  of  the  forest 
reached  out  into  the  great  beyond.     *T  shall  soon  be 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  165 

dead  as  is  the  sun  in  the  great  waters,  but  I  shall  live 
again  as  he  lives,"  said  the  Indian  in  his  prayer.  The 
Indian  had  no  more  conception  of  private  ownership 
of  land  than  the  European  has  of  private  ownership  of 
sunlight,  air  or  water.  Christopher  Columbus'  first 
glimpse  at  the  Indian  in  his  purity  was  thus  reported 
by  him  to  Ferdinand  and  Isabella:  "I  swear  to  your 
Majesties,"  he  said,  "that  there  is  not  a  better  people 
in  the  world  than  these — more  affectionate,  affable  or 
mild.  They  love  their  neighbors  as  themselves.  Their 
language  is  the  sweetest,  softest  and  most  cheerful, 
for  they  always  speak  smiling."*  Such  a  being,  en- 
dowed with  all  the  imagery  of  the  old  Hebrew 
prophets  and  living  so  akin  to  nature,  could  ill  adapt 
himself  to  the  cubes,  squares,  angles,  certainties  and 
machinery  of  civilization.  And  the  attempt  to  sum- 
marily fit  him  into  the  environments  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  life  was  like  putting  a  poet  into  a  strait-jacket. 

A  mere  glance  at  early  attempts  at  legislation  re- 
garding the  Indians  shows,  as  nothing  else  can,  the 
complete  incapacity  of  the  colonists  to  deal  with  the 
subject.  Many  of  these  laws  took  the  form  of  offering 
rewards  for  Indian  scalps,  very  much  as  legislatures 
of  today  offer  premiums  for  the  scalps  and  tails  of 
wolves.  In  1760,  during  the  troubles  with  the  Cher- 
okees.  North  Carolina  enacted  a  law  providing  for  the 
payment  of  bounties  for  Indian  scalps  and  also  pro- 


*     Macgregor:  Progress  of  America,  Vol,  I,  p.  69. 


i66    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

viding  that  Indians  captured  should  be  sold  as  slaves.* 
In  1660,  Virginia  authorized  the  seizing  and  selling  of 
Indians  as  slaves  to  pay  for  depredations. f  On  July 
7,  1764,  the  Governor  of  Pennsylvania  issued  a  procla- 
mation oflFering  the  following  schedule  of  bounties  for 
Indians  captured  or  scalped  4 

For  every  male  above  ten  years  captured $150 

For  every  male  above  ten  years,  scalped,  being  killed.. ..    134 

For  every  female,  or  male,  under  ten,  captured 130 

For  every  female  above  ten  years,  scalped,  being  killed 50 

Pennsylvania  did  not  hesitate  to  ofYer  rewards 
for  the  scalps  of  women  and  the  kidnapping  of  babies. 
By  the  Act  of  July  31,  1760,  South  Carolina  voted  an 
appropriation  of  3,500  pounds  ''to  pay  for  the  scalps 
of  Cherokee  Indians."§  Even  General  Washington 
seems  to  have  countenanced  the  scalping  of  Indians,  in 
at  least  one  case.jf  In  1758,  New  Jersey  authorized 
her  paymaster  to  procure  "fifty  good,  large,  strong  and 
fierce  dogs"  to  hunt  Indians  with.*  In  1708,  South 
Carolina  offered  a  gun  as  a  reward  for  capturing  or 
killing  an  Indian.f 

Legislation  for  the  training  of  the  Indian  in  civi- 
lized v^ays  was  on  about  the  same  intellectual  plane. 


*  Martin:  Laws  of  North  Carolina,  Vol.  I,  p.  135. 
t  Henning's  Statutes,  Vol.  II,  pp.  15,  16. 

t  Gordon:    History  of  Penn.,  p.  438. 

§  Statutes  of  South  Carolina,  Vol.  IV,  p.  128. 

^  See  Pennsylvania  Archives  (1779)  p.  569. 

*  Nevill:    Code  of  New  Jersey,  Vol.  II,  p.  202. 

t  Statutes  of.S.  C,  Vol.  II,  p.  324.  0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  167 

New  Jersey,  in  171 3,  enacted  that  an  Indian  could  not 
own  land.*  In  1796,  the  Province  of  Carolina  passed 
a  law  declaring  that  Indians  must  bring  in  skins  of 
wild  beasts  or  be  whipped.f  Here  is  a  sample  of  early 
Massachusetts  Indian  legislation: 

"And  it  is  ordered  that  no  Indian  shall  at  any  time 
powaw  or  perform  outward  worship  to  their  false  gods,  or  to 

the  devil,  in  any  part  of  our jurisdiction  and  if  any 

transgress  this  law,  the  powawer  shall  paj'  5  pounds  and 
every  other  countenancing  by  his  presence  or  otherwise 
(being  of  age  of  discretion)  twenty  shillings."  t 

As  late  as  181 5,  an  official  recommendation  to  the 
Secretary  of  War  advocated  destroying  the  Indians  by 
creating  disease  with  a  meat  diet.  The  following  is 
an  extract: 

"It  is  much  cheaper  reducing  them  by  meat  and  bread 
than  by  force  of  arms;  and  from  the  observations  J  have  had 
the  opportunity  of  making,  that  three  or  four  months  full  of 
feeding  on  meat  and  bread,  even  without  ardent  spirits,  will 
bring  on  disease,  and,  in  6  or  8  months  great  mortality.  I 
would  it  be  considered  a  proper  mode  of  warfare.  I  believe 
more  Indians  might  be  killed  with  the  expense  of  $100,000 
in  this  way  than  with  one  million  dollars  expended  in  the 
support  of  armies  to  go  against  them."§ 

In  1639,  Connecticut  declared  war  against  the 
Pequods — a  trouble  that  grew  out  of  the  liquor  traffic 

*     Nevil:    Code,  Vol.  I,  p.  23. 

t     Statutes,  Vol.  II,  pp.  108-109. 

t     Laws  of  Mass.,  Ed.  of  1672,  p.  77. 

§  Letter  from  U.  S.  Indian  Agent,  Ft.  Wayne,  Ind.,  to 
the  Secretary  of  War,  dated  Oct.  i,  1815.  American  State 
Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  Vol.  II,  p.  34. 


i68         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

— and  ordered  among  the  supplies  for  the  troops  one 
hogshead  of  "beare,"  "three  or  four  gallons  of  strong 
water"  and  two  gallons  of  "sacke."  The  colonists 
surprised  an  Indian  village  and  massacred  about  600 
men,  women  and  children.  "It  was  supposed  that  no 
less  than  six  hundred  Pequod  souls  went  down  to  hell 
that  day/'  wrote  the  Rev.  Cotton  Mather. 

Then  came  King  Philip's  war — also  caused  chiefly 
by  selling  drink  to  Indians.*  King  PhiHp  was  slain. 
"The  people  prayed  the  bullet  into  King  Philip's 
heart."  His  body  was  torn  into  bits.  His  head  was 
sent  to  Plymouth  where  it  was  publicly  exposed  for 
twenty  years.  His  hands  were  sent  to  Boston.  "We 
have  heard  of  two  and  twenty  Indians  slain,  all  of 
them,  and  brought  to  hell  in  one  day.  ...  It  was  not 
long  before  the  hand  which  now  writes  [1700],  upon 
a  certain  occasion,  took  oflf  the  jaw  from  the  exposed 
skull  of  that  blasphemous  Leviathan,"  wrote  the 
Rev.  Increase  Mather  regarding  Philip,  and  the 
trouble. 

In  striking  contrast  to  this  ghastly  stupidity  there 

*  The  Black  Hawk  War,  according  to  Black  Hawk  him- 
self, had  its  inception  in  a  drunken  row  in  St.  Louis,  in  1804. 
A  series  of  drunken  escapades  followed,  particularly  that  of 
July  24,  1827,  at  Prairie  Du  Chien,  when  Red  Bird  and  Black 
Hawk,  under  the  inspiration  of  a  keg  of  whisky,  killed  two 
persons,  wounded  another  and  then  went  to  the  mouth  of  the 
Bad  Axe  River  where  they  waylaid  two  keel  boats,  killed 
two  more  persons  and  wounded  others.  A  series  of  such 
affairs,  caused  by  whisky  peddlers,  led  to  the  general  slaugh- 
ter known  as  the  "Black  Hawk  War." 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  169 

is  an  occasional  glimpse  of  sanity.  The  General  Court 
of  Massachusetts,  in  1633,  decreed  that  "no  man  shall 
sell  or  give  any  strong  water  to  an  Indian."*  This  is 
probably  the  first  authoritative  prohibition  of  the  sale 
of  intoxicants  to  the  American  Indians.  In  1679,  New 
Jersey  forbad  selling  to  Indians  on  penalty  of  twenty 
lashes  for  the  first,  thirty  for  the  second  and  imprison- 
ment for  an  indefinite  period  for  the  third  offenscf 
Pennsylvania  forbad  selling  to  the  Red  Men  in  1701.J: 
Here  and  there  missionaries  did  what  they  could  to 
stem  the  tide  of  debauchery  of  the  Indian  through 
strong  drink.  But  the  colonists,  themselves  a  drink- 
ing people,  were  not  prone  to  rigidly  enforce  their  own 
laws  against  selling  drink  to  aborigines,  except  for  a 
time,  after  some  appalling  outrage  had  been  com- 
mitted on  account  thereof.  A  particularly  bright  spot 
in  the  treatment  of  Indians  by  the  colonists  was  the 
furious  war  that  the  Jesuit  Fathers  of  Canada  waged 
against  selling  drink  to  Indians  both  before  and  after 
the  Iroquois  War.  About  1640  Major  La  Frediere 
became  commandant  of  the  garrison  stationed  at 
Montreal.  He  straightway  turned  his  quarters  into 
a  dramshop  for  selling  liquor  to  Indians.  He  not  only 
made  them  drunk,  but  systematically  swindled  them 
besides.  An  investigation  led  to  his  being  ordered 
home,  but  his  successors  followed  the  same  policy, 
though  not  quite  so  openly.     In  the  quarrels,  brawls 

*    Records  of  Mass.,  Vol.  I,  p.  106. 

t    Learning  and  Spicer;  Laws  of  N.  J.,  p.  133. 

t     Dallas:    Laws  of  Pa.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  39-40. 


I70         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

and  public  scandals  growing  out  of  this  beastly 
traffic  was  born  the  bloody  Iroquois  War  with  its 
nightmare  of  horrors.  From  the  beginning,  the  Jesuit 
Fathers  bitterly  fought  this  practice.  In  this  opposi- 
tion many  of  the  chiefs  assisted.  In  the  summer  of 
1648  there  took  place  at  Sillery  what  was  probably 
the  first  distinctive  temperance  meeting  on  American 
soil.  The  meeting  was  inspired  by  Father  Jerome 
Lalemant,  but  the  speaker  was  an  Algonquin  chief. 
The  drum  beat  after  mass  and  the  Indians  assembled 
to  listen  to  the  speaker,  who,  in  his  own  name  and  in 
the  name  of  the  other  chiefs  proclaimed  the  Gov- 
ernor's edict  against  drunkenness,  and  exhorted  the 
braves  to  abstinence,  declaring  that  all  drunken  Ind- 
dians  would  be  handed  over  to  the  French  for  punish- 
ment. *  After  the  Iroquois  War,  in  1658,  Vicomte  d' 
Argenson  became  governor  of  the  Colony,  and  during 
his  short  rule  the  Jesuit  Fathers  prosecuted  with  re- 
newed vigor  their  war  against  selling  drink  to  Indians. 
Bishop  Laval  launched  excommunications  by  the 
wholesale  against  drink  sellers,  even  making  this  offense 
a  cas  reserve,  to  be  revoked  only  by  himself.  It  was 
at  the  demiand  of  the  Jesuits  that  d'Argenson  decree'd 
the  death  penalty  for  those  found  guilty  of  this  offense. 
Shortly  after  the  arrival  of  Governor  d'Argenson's 
successor,  Avaugour,  in  1661,  one  man  was  whipped 
and  two  were  shot,  having  been  convicted  of  selling 

*     Parkman:     Old   Regime   in    Canada:    Lalemant,   Rela- 
tion, p.  43. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  171 

liquor  to  Indians.*  Soon  a  woman  was  convicted  of 
this  offense  and  sentenced  to  imprisonment.  On  ac- 
count of  the  offender  being  a  woman,  Father  Lalemant 
interceded.  Governor  Ayaugour,  eager  for  an  excuse, 
flew  into  a  passion  and  rescinded  the  whole  law.  Griev- 
ed and  desperate,  Bishop  Laval  attempted  to  stem  the 
tide  with  fresh  edicts  of  excommunication,  but  was 
forced  to  revoke  them  in  the  following  year,  i662.f 
The  Fathers  then  appealed  to  the  King  for  aid,  who  re- 
ferred the  matter  to  the  Sorbonne.  This  body,  after 
considering  the  matter,  pronounced  selling  brandy  to 
Indians  a  "mortal  sin. "J  The  King  being  an  anti- 
prohibitionist,  was  not  pleased  with  this  and  re-re- 
ferred the  matter  to  an  assembly  of  the  ''chief  mer- 
chants" of  Canada.  These  men,  being  chiefly  inter- 
ested in  the  brandy  trafific,  naturally  reported  adverse- 
ly to  prohibition,  and  the  King,  in  1691,  ordered  that 
the  brandy  trade  in  Canada  be  no  longer  interfered 
with.§  An  enthusiastic  supporter  of  Bishop  Laval  in 
his  efforts  to  prevent  the  selling  of  brandy  to  Indians 
was  Father  Le  Mercier.  This  doughty  priest  carried 
his  opposition  so  far  that  persons  found  selling  were 
personally  led  by  him  to  the  door  of  the  church,  after 
sermon,  and  compelled  to  kneel  there  while  he  applied 

*     Journal  des  Jesuits,  Octobre,  1661. 

t  The  text  of  this  sentence  of  excommunication  may  be 
found  in  the  Appendix  of  Esquisse  de  la  Vie  de  Laval. 

t  Deliberation  de  la  Sorbonne  sur  la  Traite  des  Bois- 
sons,  8  Mars,  1675;  Memoire  sur  la  Traite  des  Boissons,  1678. 

§     LeRoy  a  Saint-Vallier,  7  April,  1691. 


172  THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

the  lash  to  the  culprit's  back  *  Another  conspicuous- 
ly active  priest,  at  a  little  later  period,  was  the  brilliant 
and  caustic  Father  Etienne  Carheil,  in  charge  of  the 
old  Marquette  Mission  at  Michilimackinac.  One  of 
his  furious  letters  of  protest  to  the  Intendent  was  a 
classic  of  denunciation.f  To  these  faithful  followers 
of  Loyola  must  be  given  the  credit  of  making  the  first 
strenuous  war  against  selling  drink  to  Indians  that 
was  waged  on  the  soil  of  the  New  World.  For  half  a 
century  these  zealous  priests  fought  this  traffic,  not 
only  all  over  Canada,  but  all  over  France  as  well. 
Much  of  the  time  they  were  successful,  but  were  fi- 
nally overwhelmed  by  the  powers  of  greed.  These 
North  Atlantic  tribes  in  whose  behalf  this  heroic  strug- 
gle was  conducted  by  the  Jesuit  Fathers  two  hundred 
and  fifty  years  ago,  are  now  known  only  to  history. 
They  have  been  swallowed  up  in  the  passion  for  drink 
— exterminated — save  a  remnant  that  puts  in  an  an- 
nual appearance  at  country  fairs. 

The  state  and  national  legislation  which  has 
grown  up,  prohibiting  the  sale  of  liquors  to  Indians,  or 
the  introduction  of  it  into  the  Indian  country,  is  large- 
ly due  to  the  efforts,  the  protests  and  the  agitation  of 
the  Red  Men  themselves.  As  far  back  as  1741,  we  find 
the  Indians  of  Pennsylvania  complaining  to  the  gover- 
nor of  that  colony  about  the  rum  being  brought  among 

*     Memoire  de  Dumesnil,  1671. 

t  Lettre  du  Fere  Etienne  Carheil  de  la  Compagnie  de 
Jesus  a  la  Intendent  Champigny,  Michilimackinac,  30  Aout, 
1702  (Archives  Nationales)  Appendix  I.  ^ 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  173 

them  by  traders.  *  On  March  15,  1783,  this  evil  reach- 
ed such  a  state  that  the  Indians  of  Western  Pennsyl- 
vania, in  Council  at  Pittsburg,  resolved  to  take  the 
matter  into  their  ow^n  hands  and  "spill  all  rum  among 
them  for  the  term  of  five  years. "f 

Tv^o  movements,  led  by  Indians  about  the  begin- 
ning of  the  century,  were  the  principal  factors  in  bring- 
ing about  state  and  national  legislation  against  the  liq- 
uor traffic  among  Indians.  The  first  of  these  move- 
ments was  led  by  Mechecunnaqua,  Chief  of  the  Miami 
Indians,  better  known  among  whites  as  "Little  Tur- 
tle." It  was  Mechecunnaqua  who  led  the  allied  Ind- 
ians in  many  of  the  border  wars  of  the  Middle  West.  It 
was  Mechecunnaqua  who  led  the  warriors  at  the  de- 
feat of  General  Harmer  and  also  of  General  St.  Clair. 
He  was  one  of  the  signers  of  the  Treaty  of  Greenville. 
Shortly  after  his  visit  to  General  Washington  in  1797, 
Mechecunnaqua  began  to  agitate  the  evils  of  the  liquor 
traffic  among  Indians,  and  entered  into  the  subject 
with  the  same  vigor  and  mental  alertness  that  he  dis- 
played in  the  border  wars.  Late  in  1801,  he  went  to 
Baltimore  to  attend  the  gathering  of  the  Baltimore 
Yearly  Meeting  of  Friends,  which  body  had  previously 
appointed  a  committee  to  investigate  a  proposal  to  es- 
tablish schools  among  Indians  to  be  conducted  under 
Quaker  auspices.  The  Committee  had  reported  that 
the   selling  of   liquor  to   Indians   created   such   a  de- 

*     Minutes,  Provincial  Council  of  Pa.,  Vol.  IV,  p.  502. 
t     Pennsylvania  Archives,  Vol.   I,  p.  549. 


174         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

plorable  condition  that  it  was  doubtful  if  any  good 
could  be  accomplished.  The  meeting,  however,  decid- 
ed to  hear  what  the  Red  Visitor  had  to  say  about  the 
matter,  and  invited  Mechecunnaqua  to  express  him- 
self, which  he  did  through  William  Wells,  *  his  in- 
terpreter.* The  combination  of  simple  directness,  elo- 
quence and  lofty  spirit  of  the  grizzled  warrior  can 
only  be  understood  by  the  text  of  this  remarkable  ad- 
dress.   He  said: 

"Brothers   and   Friends: 

"My  brother  chiefs  that  are  now  present,  with  myself, 
are  happy  to  find,  that  you  have  a  good  opinion  of  us.  You 
say,  that  you  apprehend  that  we  have  eyes  in  our  heads,  and 
can  clearly  see  for  ourselves,  these  things  that  are  injurious 
to  us — this,  my  friends  and  brothers  is  the  case — we  clearly 
see  these  things:  My  brother  chiefs  that  are  now  present 
with  me,  as  well  as  myself,  have  long  seen  them;  we  have 
long  lamented  these  great  evils  that  have  raged  in  our  coun- 
try, and  they  have  done  your  red  brethren  so  much  harm: 
We  have  applied  for  redress,  and  endeavored  to  have  them 
removed  from  amongst  us.  When  our  forefathers  first  met 
on  this  island,  your  red  brethren  were  more  numerous;  but 
since  the  introduction  amongst  us,  of  what  you  call  spirituous 
liquors,  and  what  we  think  may  justly  be  called  poison,  our 
numbers  have  greatly  diminished.  It  has  destroyed  a  great 
part  of  your  red  brethren. 

*  Captain  William  Wells  was  a  white  man,  a  brother-in- 
law  of  Mechecunnaqua.  In  his  boyhood  he  was  captured 
near  Louisville,  Ky.,  and  reared  among  the  Indians.  He 
afterward  left  the  Indians  and  became  an  army  scout.  He 
was  killed  in  the  Fort  Dearborn  Massacre,  Chicago,  in  1812. 
This  massacre  was  also  caused  by  whisky.  - 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  175 

"My  Brothers  and  Friends:  , 

"I  am  glad  to  hear  you  observe,  that  freedom  of  speech 
ought  always  to  be  made  use  of  amongst  brothers — this, 
brothers,  really  ought  to  be  the  case.  I  will  now,  therefore, 
take  J;he  liberty  to  mention  that  most  of  the  existing  evils 
amongst  your  red  brethren,  have  been  caught  from  the  white 
people;  not  only  that  liquor  which  destroys  us  daily,  but  many 
diseases  which  our  forefathers  were  ignorant  of  before  they 
saw  you. 

"My  Brothers  and  Friends: 

"I  am  glad,  with  my  brother  chiefs,  that  are  now  present, 
to  find  that  you  are  now  ready  to  assist  us  in  everything  that 
will  add  to  our  good — we  hope  that  the  Great  Spirit  may  aid 
you  in  all  your  good  undertakings  with  respect  to  us.  We 
plainly  perceive,  brothers,  that  you  see  every  evil  that  de- 
stroys your  red  brethren.  It  is  not  an  evil,  brothers,  of  our 
own  making;  we  have  not  placed  it  amongst  ourselves;  it  is 
an  evil  placed  amon_gst  us  by  the  white  people — we  look  up 
to  them  to  remove  it  out  of  our  country.  If  they  have  the 
friendship  for  us,  which  they  tell  us  they  have,  they  certainly 
will  not  let  it  continue  amongst  us  any  longer.  Our  repeated 
entreaties  to  those  who  brought  this  evil  amongst  us,  we  find, 
has  not  the  desired  effect.  We  tell  them,  brothers,  to  fetch 
us  useful  things — bring  goods  that  will  clothe  us,  our  women 
and  our  children,  but  not  this  evil  liquor  which  destroys  our 
reason;  that  destroys  our  health;  that  destroys  our  lives. 
But  all  we  can  say  on  this  subject  is  of  no  service,  nor  gives 
relief  to  your  red  brethren. 

"My    Brothers    and    Friends: 

"I  am  glad  that  you  have  seen  into  this  business  as  we 
do.  I  rejoice  to  find  that  you  agree  in  opinion  with  us,  and 
express  an  anxiety  to  be,  if  possible,  of  service  to  us,  to 
remove  this  great  evil  out  of  our  country, — an  evil  that  has 
so  much  room  in  it — that  has  destroyed  so  many  of  our  lives 


176         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

— that  causes  our  young  men  to  say,  'we  had  better  be  at 
war  with  the  white  people.  This  liquor  they  introduce  into 
our  country  is  more  to  be  feared  than  the  gun  and  toma- 
hawk; there  are  more  of  us  dead  since  the  treaty  of  Green- 
ville than  we  lost  by  the  six  years  war  before.  It  is  all  ow- 
ing to  the  introduction  of  this  liquor  amongst  us.'  Brothers, 
how  to  remove  this  evil  from  our  country  we  do  not  know. 
If  we  had  known  that  it  would  have  been  a  proper  subject  to 
mention  to  you  in  our  council  yesterday,  we  should  surely 
have  done  it.  This  subject,  brothers,  composes  a  part  of 
w'hat  we  intend  to  make  known  to  the  Great  Council  of  our 
white  brethren.  On  our  arrival  there,  we  shall  endeavor  to 
explain  to  our  great  Father,  the  President,  a  great  many  of 
the  evils  that  have  arisen  in  our  country  from  the  introduc- 
tion of  this  liquor  by  the  white  traders. 

"Brothers  and  Friends: 

"In  addition  to  what  I  have  before  observed  of  this 
great  evil  in  the  country  of  your  red  brethren,  I  will  say 
further,  that  it  has  made  us  poor.  It  is  this  liquor  that  causes 
our  young  men  to  go  without  clothes,  and  our  women  and 
children  to  go  without  anything  to  eat;  and  sorry  am  I  to 
mention  now  to  you,  brothers,  that  the  evil  is  increasing  every 
day,  as  the  white  settlers  come  nearer  to  us  and  bring  those 
kettles  they  boil  that  stuff  in  they  call  whisky,  of  which  our 
young  men  are  so  extremely  fond.  Brothers,  when  our  young 
men  have  been  out  hunting,  and  are  returning  home  loaded 
with  skins  and  furs,  on  their  way  if  it  happens  that  they  come 
along  where  some  of  this  whisky  is  deposited,  the  white 
man  who  sells  it  tells  them  to  take  a  little  and  drink.  Some 
of  them  say  no.  I  do  not  want  it.  They  go  until  they  come 
to  another  house,  where  they  find  more  of  the  same  kind  of 
drink.  It  is  there  again  offered.  They  refuse,  and,  again 
the  third  time,  but  finally  the  fourth  time,  one  accepts  it  and 
takes  a  drink,  and  getting  one  he  wants  another,  and  then  a 
third  and  fourth  till  his  senses  have  left  him.     After  his  rea- 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  177 

son  comes  back  to  him,  he  gets  up  and  finds  where  he  is.  He 
asks  for  his  peltry.  The  answer  is,  you  have  drank  them. 
Where  is  my  gun?  It  is  gone.  Where  is  my  blanket?  It 
is  gone.  Where  is  my  shirt?  You  have  sold  it  for  whisky. 
Now,  brothers,  figure  to  yourself  what  a  condition  this  man 
must  be  in — he  has  a  family  at  home,  a  wife  and  children  that 
stand  in  need  of  the  profits  of  his  hunting.  What  must  their 
wants  be,  when  he  is*  even  without  a  shirt? 

"This,  brothers,  I  assure  you,  is  a  fact  that  often  happens 
amongst  us.  As  I  have  before  observed,  we  have  no  means 
to  prevent  it.  If  you,  brothers,  have  it  in  your  power  to 
render  us  any  assistance,  we  hope  the  Great  Spirit  will  aid 
you.  We  shall  lay  these  evils  before  our  great  and  good 
Father;  we  hope  he  will  remove  them  from  amongst  us.  If 
he  does  not,  there  will  not  be  many  of  his  red  children  living 
long  in  our  country.  The  Great  Spirit,  brothers,  has  made 
you  see  as  we  see.  We  hope,  brothers,  and  expect,  that  if 
you  have  any  influence  with  the  Great  Council  of  the  United 
States,  that  you  will  make  use  of  it  in  behalf  of  your  red 
brethren. 

"My  Brothers  and  Friends: 

"The  talks  that  you  delivered  to  us  when  we  were  in 
council  yesterday,  were  certainly  highly  pleasing  to  myself 
as  well  as  to  my  brother  chiefs.  We  rejoiced  to  hear  you 
speak  such  words  to  us;  but  we  all  plainly  saw  that  there  was 
a  great  difficulty  in  the  way  that  ought  to  be  removed  before 
your  good  intentions  toward  us  could  be  of  any  effect.  We 
agree  with  you,  brothers,  that  this  great  evil  amongst  us, 
spirituous  liquors,  must  first  be  removed.  After  this  is  done, 
we  hope  you  will  find  an  easy  access  to  us,  much  easier  than 
you  can  have  at  present. 

"My  Brothers  and  Friends: 

"I  hope  that  we  all  try  to  prevent  the  introduction  of 
spirituous  liquors  in  the  country  of  your  red  brethren,  the 


1/8         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Great  Spirit  will  aid  us  in  it,  and  then  we  shall  meet  with  no 
difficulty  in  doing  it.  After  this  is  done,  we  hope  that  the 
great  services  you  have  designed  to  do  for  us,  the  great  things 
mentioned  by  you  in  our  council  yesterday,  may  take  place 
and  have  that  success  you  so  much  desire. 
"I  have  nothing  further  to  say." 

This  remarkable  address  of  the  old  warrior  effect- 
ed a  revolutionary  change  in  the  attitude  of  the  meet- 
ing. The  gathering,  through  its  committee,  promptly 
formulated  an  address  to  Congress  embodying  the 
speech  of  the  Indian  Chieftain.  This  committee  was 
composed  of  Evan  Thomas,  Elias  Endicott,  John 
Brown,  David  Brown,  John  McKim,  Joel  Wright  and 
George  Elliott.  The  memorial  prepared  by  the  Com- 
mittee was,  on  January  7,  1802,  referred  to  a  Commit- 
tee of  Congressmen  consisting  of  Samuel  Smith,  Gris- 
wold,  Davis,  Hoge  and  Randolph,  and  was  then  print- 
ed as  a  government  document.  * 

From  Baltimore,  Mechecunnaqua  went  on  a  visit 
to  Washington  and  begged  President  JeflFerson  to  aid 
in  the  movement  to  prevent  the  sale  of  liquor  to  Ab- 
origines. The  President  took  a  lively  interest  in  the 
matter  and  wrote  letters  to  the  Ohio  legislature  ask- 
ing that  body  to  enact  legislation  prohibiting  the  sell- 
ing of  intoxicants  to  Indians.  On  January  2^,  1802,  in 
a  message  to  Congress,  relating  to  Indian  affairs,  Pres- 
ident Jefferson  said: 

*  One  of  the  original  copies  of  this  document,  contain- 
ing the  text  of  Mechecunnaqua's  address,  is  still  preserved 
in  the  Congressional  Library  at  Washington. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  179 

"  These  people  [IndiansJ  are  becoming  very  sensible  of 
the  baneful  effects  produced  on  their  morals,  their  health  and 
existence  by  the  abuse  of  ardent  spirits  and  some  of  them 
earnestly  desire  a  prohibition  of  that  article  from  being 
carried  among  them.  The  Legislature  will  consider  whether 
the  effectuating  of  that  desire  would  not  be  in  the  spirit  of 
benevolence  and  liberality  which  they  have  hitherto  practiced 
toward  these  our  neighbors,  and  which  has  had  so  happy  an 
effect  toward  conciliating  their  friendship.  It  has  been 
found,  too,  in  our  experience  that  the  same  abuse  gives  fre- 
quent rise  to  incidents  tending  much  to  commit  our  peace 
with  the  Indians."  * 

Congress  responded  quickly  to  the  suggestion  of 
the  President.  The  Act  of  March  30,  of  that  year,  pro- 
vided "That  the  President  of  the  United  States  be 
authorized  to  take  such  measures  from  time  to  time  as 
may  appear  to  him  expedient  to  prevent  or  restrain  the 
vending  or  distributing  of  spirituous  liquors  among 
all  or  any  of  the  said  Indian  tribes,  anything  herein 
contained  to  the  contrary  thereof  notwithstanding."f 
Mechecunnaqua  and  Wells  next  visited  the  legisla- 
tures of  Kentucky  and  Ohio,  where  their  efforts  were 
continued  to  secure  legislation  against  the  sale  of  liq- 
uor to  Indians. 

Mechecunnaqua,  in  this  movement,  inspired  and 
promoted  the  first  step  ever  taken  by  the  government 
of  the  United  States  looking  toward  doing  anything 
to  the  liquor  traffic  except  to  tax  it.    He  was  the  "orig- 

*     Messages   and    Papers   of   the    Presidents,    Vol.    I,   p. 
334;  American  State  Papers,  Indian  Affairs,  Vol.  I,  p.  653. 
t    U.  S.  Statutes  at  Large,  Vol.  II,  p.  146. 


j8o         the   federal   GOVERNMENT 

inal  prohibitionist,"  the  first  "Christian  lobbyist,"  the 
first  prohibition  law  ever  enacted  by  Congress  being 
his  handiwork.  He  was  a  man  of  great  intellect,  of 
lofty  character,  a  patriot  to  the  core,  a  friend  of  Wash- 
ington and  Kosciusko  and  intensely  devoted  to  the 
welfare  of  his  fellow  Indians.  His  education  in  a 
Jesuit  school  in  Canada  may  have  helped  inoculate  him 
with  hatred  for  the  liquor  traffic.  He  died  at  Ft. 
Wayne,  Indiana,  July  14,  1812,  and  was  buried  with  the 
honors  of  war.  The  fact  that  he  wore  feathers  instead 
of  a  silk  hat  may,  in  part,  account  for  his  not  having 
been  given  the  place  in  the  history  of  the  temperance 
reform  that  his  works  justly  entitle  him  to. 

Directly  after  the  prohibition  efforts  of  Mechec- 
unnaqua  there  followed  a  remarkable  moral  suasion 
campaign  throughout  the  central  west,  led  by  Ells- 
kwatawa,  son  of  the  Shawnee  chief  Pukeesheno 
and  brother  of  the  great  Tecumseh.  When  he  entered 
upon  his  campaign,  Ellskwatawa  or  Lawlewasaikaw 
changed  his  name  to  Tenskwautawa,  but  he  is 
better  known  to  white  people  as  "The  Prophet."  Dur- 
ing the  month  of  November,  1805,  Ellskwatawa  called 
around  him  the  chiefs  and  principal  men  of  the  Shaw- 
nees,  Wyandotts  and  Senecas,  in  their  ancient  capital  of 
Wapakoneta,  on  the  Auglaize  River  in  Ohio.  He  there 
announced  that  he  had  been  made  the  bearer  of  a  new 
revelation  from  the  Master  of  Life,  who  wished  to 
save  the  red  children  from  destruction.  It  was  reveal- 
ed to  him  that  he  should  denounce  witchcraft,  medicine 
jugglers  and  especially  firewater.    Drinkers  of  the  lat- 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  i8i 

ter  were  especially  accursed  after  death  in  the  dwell- 
ing of  the  Devil.  There  they  were  compelled  to  stand 
in  a  corner,  through  all  eternity,  with  flames  of  fire 
pouring  out  of  their  mouths.  Ellskwatawa,*  like 
Tecumseh,  was  addicted  to  drink  in  his  early  years, 
but  the  horrid  scene  in  the  House  of  the  Devil  re- 
formed him.  Three  years  later,  Ellskwatawa  visited 
Governor  Harrison  to  explain  the  nature  and  purpose 
of  his  crusade.  In  closing  his  speech  to  the  Governor, 
the  Chieftain  said : 

"I  told  all  the  redskins  that  the  way  they  were  in  was 
not  good,  and  that  they  ought  to  abandon  it.  That  we  ought 
to  consider  ourselves  as  one  man;  but  we  ought  to  live  agree- 
ably to  our  several  customs,  the  red  people  to  their  mode, 
and  the  white  people  after  theirs;  particularly  that  they 
should  not  drink  whisky;  that  it  was  not  made  for  them, 
but  for  the  white  people,  who,  alone,  knew  how  to  use  it;  and 
that  it  was  the  cause  of  all  the  mishaps  that  the  Indians  suf- 
fer  I  have  listened  to  what  you  have  said  to  us.    You 

have  promised  to  assist  us;  now  I  request  you,  in  behalf  of 
all  the  red  people,  to  use  your  exertions  to  prevent  the  sale 
of  liquor  to  us."  f 

Neither  Tecumseh  nor  Ellskwatawa,  though 
men  of  acknowledged  power  and  influence,  were  be- 
loved by  the  white  Americans  of  their  day.  Tecum- 
seh was  conspicuous  in  the  campaigns  of  Mechecun- 

*  Meetheetrashe  (Turtle  Laying  Egges  in  the  Sand) 
was  the  mother  of  triplets,  Ellskwatawa  (Open  Door),  Te- 
cumseh (Tiger  Crouching  for  his  Prey)  and  Kumskaka 
(Tiger  that  Flies  in  the  Air). 

t     Drake:     Tecumseh,  pp.  107-9. 


i82         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

naqiia  leading  up  to  the  Treaty  of  Greenville  and,  for 
twenty  years  before  his  death,  he  led  or  played  a  con- 
spicuous part  in  nearly  every  Indian  battle  with  the 
whites.  From  1804  to  1813,  he  kept  the  Indians  of 
the  South  and  Central  West  in  a  perpetual  ferment 
over  his  Indian  Confederacy*  formed  to  drive  the 
whites  back  from  their  country.f  Ellskwatawa  led  the 
Indians  at  the  battle  of  Tippecanoe  and  both  he  and 
Tecumseh  fought  with  the  British  in  the  war  of  1812. 
Tecumseh  was  made  a  Brigadier  General  in  the  British 
Army  and  Ellskwatawa  received  a  pension  from  the 
British  government  till  his  death. 

While  both  were  historic  enemies  of  the  whites, 
none  has  ventured  to  deny  the  beneficent  effects  of 
Ellskwatawa's  weird  harangues  among  the  children  of 

*  For  an  account  of  this  Confederacy,  see  Drake;  Life 
of  Tecumseh  and  Clarke;  Origin  and  Traditional  History  of 
the  Wyandotts  and  Tecumseh  and  His  League. 

t  Prior  to  the  battle  of  Ft.  Meigs,  Tecumseh  and 
General  Harrison  had  formed  a  compact  to  prevent  cruelty 
on  each  side.  At  this  battle,  Colonel  Dudley  and  a  detach- 
ment were  cut  off  by  the  Indians  and  a  slaughter  was  under 
way,  when  Tecumseh  appeared  and  stopped  it  according  to 
his  agreement.  One  Chippewa  chieftain  refused  to  desist, 
whereupon  Tecumseh  buried  his  tomahawk  in  his  head. 
When  Tecumseh  himself  was  killed  at  the  battle  of  the 
Thames,  Oct.  5,  1813,  American  soldiers  skinned  and  horribly 
mutilated  the  corpse.  In  his  younger  days,  Tecumseh  was 
addicted  to  drink  and  many  acts  of  cruelty  were  charged  up 
to  him.  When  he  ceased  to  drink,  he  left  off  the  practices  of 
cruelty   and    bitterly    opposed    the    same. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  183 

the  woods.  His  earnest,  dramatic  bearing,  his  fiery 
eloquence  and  his  one  eye  ruined  the  business  of  the 
whisky  peddler  throughout  the  entire  central  west 
for  a  period  of  years.  Not  an  Indian  could  be  found 
who  would  run  the  risk  of  the  eternal  baptism  of  fire 
by  drinking  the  stuff.  Referring  to  his  influence, 
James  Mooney  wrote,  "Those  who  were  addicted  to 
drunkenness — the  besetting  sin  of  the  Indians  since 
their  acquaintance  with  the  whites — were  so  thorough- 
ly alarmed  at  the  prospect  of  fiery  punishment  in  the 
spirit-world  that,  for  a  long  time,  intoxication  became 
practically  unknown  among  the  western  tribes."  * 

Echoes  of  the  Indians  war  against  drink  in  the 
central  west  found  its  way  into  the  abodes  of  Indians 
in  other  sections  of  the  country.  In  an  Indian  Council 
held  at  Batavia,  N.  Y.,  March  2,  1812,  Chief  Hauanossa 
(John  Sky)  said : 

"Brothers,  we  are  happy  to  inform  you  that  the  resolu- 
tion we  adopted  some  years  ago  to  abolish  the  use  of  strong 
liquors  has  not  been  violated.  Not  a  drop  of  these  liquors 
has  been  drank  in  our  village  for  many  years.  We  wish  we 
had  it  in  our  power  to  say  the  same  of  our  red  brethren  of 
the  Buffalo  village;  many  of  whom  debase  themselves  and  dis- 
tress their  families  by  the  pernicious  practice.  We  are  sorry 
to  say  that  a  barrel  of  whisky  is  the  god  they  worship."t 

Geneodiyo,  was  the  name  of  another  Indian  proph- 
et and  reformer  whose  work  among  the  Iroquois,  or 

*  Fourteenth  Annual  Report,  Bureau  of  Ethnology, 
Part  II,  p.  673. 

t     Niles'  Register,  Vol.  II.  p.  32. 


i84         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Six  Nations,  extended  over  most  of  the  first  half  of  the 
nineteenth  century.  Geneodiyo  followed  somewhat  the 
methods  of  Ellskwatawa.  He  received  a  revelation 
from  the  Great  Spirit  commissioning  him  as  religious 
teacher,  but  the  religion  he  taught  was  chiefly  the 
doctrine  of  abstinence  from  intoxicants.  Year  after 
year  Geneodiyo  went  from  village  to  village,  up  and 
down  the  Iroquois  nation,  preaching  total  abstinence 
from  the  white  man's  liquor.  Everywhere  he  went 
he  organized  temperance  circles  or  societies,  lectures 
being  given  by  the  head  men  of  the  nation.  In  1830, 
these  primitive  circles  organized  after  the  white  man's 
style  into  formal  organizations  with  written  constitu- 
tions. Branch  societies  were  formed  on  the  different 
reservations,  and,  for  a  number  of  years,  annual  con- 
ventions were  held  of  these  societies.*  In  1842,  the 
"Tuscarora  Temperance  Cornet  Band"  was  organized, 
and  for  forty  years  this  band  not  only  was  prominent 
in   the   Indian   conventions,   but   also   frequently   ap- 

*  Remnants  of  this  movement  still  exist  in  the  Six 
Nations  Temperance  League,  or  the  Iroquois  Temperance 
League  as  it  is  sometimes  called.  This  organization  is  a 
federation  of  seven  local  lodges  which  still  exist  on  New 
York  reservations  which  hold  weekly  or  semi-monthly 
meetings.  Annual  conventions  of  the  lodges  are  held.  The 
officers  of  the  Federation  elected  in  1910  were:  President, 
Charles  Doxen.  of  Syracuse;  Secretary,  Horatio  R.  Printup,  of 
Akron,  N.  Y.    The  convention  for  1910  was  held  in  Salamanca. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  185 

peared  at  temperance  conventions  of  the  white  people.* 
Kahgegagahbowh,  an  O  jib  way  Chieftain,  became 
prominent  as  a  temperance  reformer  among  New  York 
Indians  during  this  period.  Accompanied  by  a  quar- 
tette of  Mohawk  vocalists,  he  was  a  prominent  figure 
at  both  Indian  and  white  temperance  conventions  for 
a  number  of  years.  His  style  of  address  is  indicated 
by  a  speech  which  he  made  in  advocacy  of  the  total 
abstinence  pledge  at  the  anniversary  of  the  American 
Temperance  Union  in  1850.     He  said: 

"I  read  in  your  histories  of  the  time  when  all  this  land 
was  in  the  possession  of  my  fathers;  when  the  fires  burned 
brightly  in  their  wild  homes,  and  the  merry  songs  of  their 
children  were  constantly  heard.  What  is  it  that  has  come 
over  the  wigwam  of  the  Indian?  What  has  dampened  his 
fireside,  and  hushed  the  songs  of  his  children?  It  is  the 
firewater.  The  white  man  who  speaks  by  the  lightning,  gave 
firewater  to  the  Indian,  and  when  I  think  that  he  was  so 
wise  as  to  make  ardent  spirits,  I  am  sorry  he  knew  so  much. 
But,  perhaps,  I  might  rather  charge  the  devil  with  the  in- 
vention, for  I  doubt  not  that  the  white  man  is  shamed  to 
own  it  is  his. 

"I  remember  well  the  sixteen  years  of  my  life  with  my 
people  in  the  woods — during  all  which  time  there  was  noth- 
ing but  continual  scenes  of  broiling  and  bloodshed.  Year 
after  year,  before  the  missionary  came,  the  poor  Indian  went 
rapidly  down  to  the  drunkard's  grave.  But  the  white  man 
came  and  made  a  wall  around  to  keep  out  intemperance.  This 
wall  was  the  teetotal  pledge.    The  hand  of  the  Great  Spirit  is 

*  A  good  account  of  this  movement  may  be  found  in 
Legends,  Traditions  and  Laws  of  the  Iroquois  or  Six  Na- 
tions, written  by  Elias  Johnson,  a  native  Tuscarora  Chief- 
tain. 


i86    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

under  it — the  eye  of  the  Great  Spirit  is  over  it — the  arms  of 
the  Great  Spirit  are  around  it,  and  it  must  stand.  There  was 
not  a  white  trader  in  that  nation  but  was  deadly  opposed  to 
the  temperance  pledge.  When  the  white  man  is  harnessing 
the  fires  of  the  Great  Spirit  to  his  toil,  when  his  fire  cars  are 
rolling  over  every  valley  on  the  continent,  shall  the  Temper- 
ance cause  keep  the  old  market  wagon  pace  of  your  forefath- 
ers a  hundred  years  ago?"* 

Black  Snake,  of  the  Senecas,  was  another  chieftain 
conspicuous  in  temperance  work.  On  September  4, 
1845,  before  a  motley  gathering  of  a  thousand  Indians 
and  whites,  the  venerable  chieftain,  then  ninety-seven 
years  of  age,  made  a  most  eloquent  appeal  to  the 
whites  to  keep  their  liquor  away.  In  a  voice  trembling 
with  emotion,  the  old  patriarch  said: 

"But  who  is  it  that  has  made  my  people  drunk?  Indians 
cannot  make  whisky,  Indians  do  not  sell  it.  But  white 
people  make  it  and  bring  it  among  us.  It  is  they  that  have 
brought  the  evil  upon  us,  and  we  cannot  remove  it.  The 
white  people  can  remove  it,  and  now  we  call  upon  them  to  do 
it.  We  ask  them  to  take  their  whisky  and  run  away,  and 
leave  us  sober  as  they  found  us."  f 

In  1829,  the  Senecas  of  Ohio  began  an  agitation 
for  their  removal  to  the  far  west  in  the  hope  of  getting 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  white  man's  liquor.  On  Oc- 
tober 15,  1829,  the  chiefs  joined  in  a  petition  to  the 
President  asking  for  such  removal.    In  this,  they  said : 

"We  the  Seneca  Chiefs,  residing  on  Sandusky  River  and 
State  of  Ohio,  wish  you  to  open  your  ears  to  your  red  chil- 

*  Fourteenth  Annual  Report,  American  Temperance 
Union. 

t     Niles  Register,  Vol.  69,  p.  38.  0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  187 

dren  in  this  place.  Our  agents  have  long  since  told  us  that 
there  was  a  good  country  in  the  West  and  plenty  of  game, 
where  the  Indian  could  live  well  and  be  out  of  the  way  of 
bad  white  men,  and  from  a  strong  drink  which  has  destroyed 
so  many  of  our  people." 

This  petition  was  signed  by  the  following  :*  Corn- 
stock,  George  Curley  Eye,  Seneca  Steel,  Tall  Chief, 
Wiping  Stick,  Capt.  Good  Hunt,  Blue  Jacket,  Hard 
Hicky,  Segow,  Capt  Smith,  Small  Cloud  Spicer,  Thom- 
as Brant. 

It  was  about  this  period  that  Estamaza,  Chief  of 
the  Omahas,  practically  broke  up  drinking  among  his 
people  by  rather  strenuous  methods.  Persons  found 
bringing  liquor  into  the  Omaha  country  were  prompt- 
ly turned  over  to  the  wanasha  (Indian  warriors)  for 
punishment.  These  penalties  consisted  of  severe  cor- 
poral whippings  and  beatings.  In  extreme  cases  the 
tent  and  all  the  belongings  of  the  offender  were 
burned. 

Shortly  after  the  War  of  1812  a  strong  temper- 
ance movement  developed  among  the  Indians  of  Geor- 
gia and  Alabama,  now  known  as  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  of  the  Indian  Territory.  The  Cherokees  were 
the  leaders  in  this  movement,  as  well  as  the  pioneers. 
The  Cherokees  had  churches,  schools,  printing  presses 
and  a  well  organized  community.  Their  temperance 
efforts  quickly  took  the  form  of  legislation,  prohibiting 
the  introduction  of  spirituous  liquors  into  their  coun- 

*     State  Papers,   ist  Sess.  21st  Cong.,  House   Doc.   No. 
2,  p.  185. 


i88         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

try.  On  October  26,  1819,  more  than  a  quarter  of  a 
century  before  the  state  of  Maine  passed  her  first  pro- 
hibitory law,  the  National  Committee  and  Council  of 
the  Cherokee  Nation,  at  Newton,  Georgia,  the  Cher- 
okee capital,  passed  the  first  prohibition  law  against 
intoxicating  liquors,  the  text  reading: 

"No  person  or  persons,  not  citizens  of  the  Nation,  shall 
bring  into  this  Nation,  or  sell  any  spirituous  liquors;  and  all 
such  person  or  persons,  so  offending,  shall  forfeit  the  whole 
of  the  spirituous  liquors  that  may  be  found  in  his  or  their 
possession,  and  the  same  shall  be  disposed  of  for  the  benefit 
of  the  Nation,  and  if  any  person  or  persons,  shall  receive 
and  bring  into  the  Nation  spirituous  liquors  for  disposal, 
and  the  same  or  any  part  thereof,  be  found  to  be  the  prop- 
erty of  a  person  or  persons  not  citizens  of  the  Nation, 
and  satisfactory  proof  be  made  of  the  fact,  he  or  they 
shall  forfeit  and  pay  the  sum  of  $100,  and  the  whisky  be 
subject  to  confiscation,  as  aforesaid.  This  decree  to  take 
effect  from  and  after  the  first  day  of  January,  1820,  and  to  be 
strictly  enforced,"* 

Two  days  later  this  Act  was  officially  approved 
by  Chiefs  Path-Killer  and  Charles  B.  Hicks.  Inas- 
much as  the  whisky  peddlers  were  all  white  people 
this  Act  amounted  to  total  prohibition  of  liquor  selling 
within  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Nation. 

On  October  28,  1820,  this  legislation  was  supple- 
mented by  an  Act  extending  the  prohibition  against 
selling  by  negro  slaves.  Further  prohibition  was  en- 
acted November  8,  1824,  January  27,  1824  and  Novem- 


*     ReporJ:   of   Secretary   of  War  on   Indian    Affairs,   for 
1822,  appendix  p.  175.  ^ 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  189 

ber  II,  1824.  This  legislation  was  supplemented,  in 
1829,  by  a  moral  suasion  propaganda  in  which  a  total 
abstinence  pledge  from  distilled  spirits  was  drawn  up 
in  the  Cherokee  language,  and  widely  circulated  by 
Indian  societies. 

On  September  19,  1831,  the  "Western  Cherokees," 
those  who  had  voluntarily  emigrated  west  of  the  Mis- 
sissippi about  twelve  years  before,  passed  a  law  pro- 
hibiting the  selling  of  ardent  spirits  within  five  miles 
of  the  National  Council.  On  September  6,  1839,  after 
the  main  body  of  the  Cherokees  had  been  driven  from 
their  Georgia  home,  to  Indian  Territory,  the  remnants 
of  the  re-united  nation  met  at  Tahlequah  to  draft  a 
constitution  and  enact  a  code  of  laws.  The  first  law 
enacted  was  one  for  the  protection  of  women.  The 
sixteenth  law,  passed  on  September  26,  read : 

"Be  it  enacted  by  the  National  Council,  that  the  intro- 
duction or  vending  of  ardent  spirits  in  this  Nation  shall  not 
be  lawful;  and  any  and  all  persons  are  prohibited  from 
bringing  or  engaging  in  the  traffic  of  ardent  spirits  within 
five  miles  of  the  National  Council  during  its  session,  or  one 
mile  from  any  of  the  places  designated  for  holding  courts 
during  their  sessions,  or  one  mile  from  any  public  gathering, 
or  meeting  in  the  Nation,  under  penalty  of  having  same 
wasted  or  destroyed  by  any  lawful  officer  or  authorized  per- 
son, by  the  sheriff,  for  such  purpose." 

The  formation  of  the  National  Cherokee  Temper- 
ance Society  in  1836,  was  followed  by  the  organization 
of  branches  in  numerous  towns  and  villages.  On  July 
3,  1843,  at  the  Grand  Council  fire,  held  at  Tahlequah, 
a  solemn  anti-liquor  compact  was  formed  between  rep- 


I90    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

resentatives  of  the  Cherokees,  Creeks  and  the  Osages. 
Section  Eight  of  the  compact  read : 

"The  use  of  ardent  spirits,  being  a  fruitful  source  of 
crime  and  misfortune,  we  recommend  its  suppression  within 
our  limits,  and  agree  that  no  citizen  of  our  Nation,  shall  in- 
troduce it  into  the  territory  of  any  other  Nation  party  to  this 
compact." 

This  same  clause  was  agreed  to  again  in  1886,  at 
Eufaula,  in  the  compact  entered  into  between  the  Cher- 
okees, Choctaws,  Chickasaws,  Creeks,  Seminoles, 
Comanches,  Wichitas  and  affiliated  bands  of  Indians 
residing  in  the  southwest  part  of  the  Territory. 

The  compact  of  1843  ^^^  followed  by  a  renewed 
temperance  agitation  that  flourished  for  seven  years, 
under  the  leadership  of  the  Cherokee  Temperance  So- 
ciety, which  reached  a  membership  of  seventeen  hun- 
dred and  fifty-two.  The  prohibition  laws  mentioned 
above  were  elaborated  and  strengthened  by  the  Acts 
of  October  25.  1841,  November  4,  i860,  again  by  the 
laws  of  1875,  and  again  by  the  Act  of  November  29, 
1880. 

This  legislation  against  drink  by  the  Cherokees 
was  followed  by  similar  legislation  by  the  others  of  the 
Five  Civilized  Tribes.  Early  in  1827  one  of  the  Choc- 
taw districts  prohibited  the  introduction  and  sale  of  ar- 
dent spirits.  By  January  28,  1829,  all  the  other  dis- 
tricts had  adopted  the  same  policy.  Legislation 
against  drink,  and  temperance  societies  were  estab- 
lished immediately  after  the  Choctaws  were  settled  in 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  191 

their  Western  home.  The  Chickasaws  enacted  their 
first  Prohibition  legislation  in   1828. 

These  efforts  on  the  part  of  the  Five  Civilized 
Tribes  to  keep  liquor  away  from  their  people  have 
been  continuous  from  those  times  to  the  present.  They 
have  not  only  legislated  against  and  fought  the  traffic 
on  their  own  account,  but  in  their  dealings  with  the 
United  States  Government  have  always  insisted  that 
proper  efforts  be  made  to  eliminate  this  traffic.  The 
Commission  to  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes,  commonly 
known  as  the  "Dawes  Commission,"  was  created  by 
Congress  on  March  3,  1893,  *'for  the  purpose  of  ex- 
tinguishment of  the  National  or  tribal  titles  to  any 
lands  within  that  Territory  now  held  by  any  or  all  such 
Nations  or  tribes,  either  by  cession  of  the  same  or 
some  part  thereof  to  the  United  States,  or  by  the 
allotment  and  divisions  of  the  same  in  severalty  among 

the  Indians  of  such  Nations  or  tribes "    The 

agreement  made  by  this  commission  with  the  Creek 
Indians,  approved  June  8,  1898,  under  which  said  Ind- 
ians surrendered  their  tribal  government  and  agreed 
to  allotment  of  their  lands,  contained  the  following 
provision : 

"The  United  States  agrees  to  maintain  strict  laws  in  the 
Territory  of  said  Nation  against  the  introduction,  sale,  barter  or 
giving  away  of  liquors  and  intoxicants  of  any  kind  or  quantity." 

Substantially  this  same  clause  was  included  in  the 
agreements   made  with   the   other   tribes.*     Scarcely 

*  Kappler:  Indian  Laws  and  Treaties,  Vol.  I,  pp.  651, 
661,  664,  739,  798,  (Sec.  7^)  together  with  page  95,  proviso. 


192    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

had  these  agreements  been  completed  when 
a  project  was  set  on  foot  by  white  men  to  admit 
the  Indian  Territory  and  Oklahoma  Territory  into  the 
Union  as  a  single  state,  and  without  any  provision 
whatever  for  protecting  the  obligations  of  the  agree- 
ment to  keep  intoxicating  liquor  out  of  the  territory 
occupied  by  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes. 

The  Indians  of  these  tribes  were  at  once  up  in 
arms,  the  chief  reason  for  their  objections  being  the 
fear  that  the  sale  of  liquor  would  be  permitted  under 
the  new  state.  To  give  voice  to  their  protest,  an  in- 
formal meeting  of  Indians  of  the  Five  Tribes  was  held 
at  Eufaula,  November  28,  1902.  This  meeting,  to  fur- 
ther voice  their  protest,  called  a  convention  at  the 
same  place  for  May  21,  1903.  This  convention  laid 
plans  for  opposing  any  scheme  of  statehood  that  would 
endanger  the  Prohibition  laws  of  the  Territory. 
Among  the  recommendations  made  by  the  convention, 
and  signed  by  the  principal  Chiefs  of  each  of  the  Five 
Nations,  was  the  following: 

"6.  We  further  recommend  that  the  general  council  of 
each  nation  address  a  memorial  to  the  various  religious  and 
temperance  organizations  of  the  United  States  requesting 
them  to  assist  the  Indians  of  the  Five  Civilized  Tribes  in 
their  efforts  to  prevent  the  annexation  of  Indian  Territory  to 
Oklahoma  and  to  secure  an  independent  state  government 
for  Indian  Territory  under  a  constitution  which  will  protect 
the  Indian  from  the  baneful  influence  of  intoxicating  liq- 
uors." 

A  joint  committee  was  also  formed,  consisting  of 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  193 

a  representative  of  each  Nation,  to  carry  out  the  plan 
of  the  convention. 

What  the  liquor  traffic  meant  to  the  Indian  can 
never  be  understood  by  the  white  man.  The  red  man 
was  the  first  to  protest,  and  the  pages  of  American 
history,  for  two  hundred  and  fifty  years,  are  strewn 
with  quaint,  pathetic  appeals  from  native  chiefs  for 
protection  from  the  white  man's  liquor.  When  the 
persistent  maltreatment  by  the  whisky  peddlers  ex- 
hausted the  patience  of  the  Indian,  when  these  miser- 
able white  renegades  had  robbed  their  Indian  men 
and  debauched  their  women  to  a  degree  that  even 
Indian  patience  could  no  longer  endure,  savage  nature 
came  into  control,  and  savagery  was  met  with  savagery 
in  its  most  horrible  phases.  An  "Indian  War,"  the 
mere  mention  of  which  always  blanches  the  face  and 
chills  the  heart,  left  its  trail  of  innocent  blood  across 
forest  and  stream,  while  the  whisky  peddler,  the 
cause  of  it  all,  skulked  away  until  the  trouble  was  over. 

It  is  the  frontier  missionary  who  better  than  any 
other  of  the  white  race  knows  the  horror  that  the 
whisky  peddler  brings  into  the  Indian  home.  And 
let  no  man  imagine  that  the  practical  sympathy  that 
comes  from  intimate  knowledge  finds  no  response  in 
the  Indian  breast.  There  is  no  living  Cherokee  today 
who  does  not  revere  the  memory  of  the  missionaries 
of  Northern  Georgia  who  were  thrown  in  jail,  and 
who  shared  the  Indians'  fate  when  driven  into  the  wil- 
derness at  the  point  of  the  bayonet  in  1838,  an  atrocity 
unsurpassed  in  wickedness  by  the  deeds  of  any  savages 


194    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

in  American  history.  What  more  honored  name  is 
there  in  the  pioneer  history  of  the  far  northwest  than 
that  of  Father  DeSmet,  who  spent  his  life  in  the  homes 
of  the  red  men?  Father  DeSmet  kept  a  sort  of  a  diary 
as  best  he  could  in  his  wild  surroundings.  A  few  en- 
tries in  this  diary,  written  in  the  Pottawatomie  Na- 
tion, near  Council  Bluffs,  in  1839  *  throw  a  ray  upon 
what  whisky  meant  to  Indian  life  in  pioneer  days : 

"[May]  25.  Two  Pottawatomies  killed  on  the  Chage  [?] 
River  in  a  drunken  frolic. 

"[May]  27.  Three  Pottawatomies  drowned  in  the  Mis- 
souri, supposed  to  be  drunk. 

"28.  A  Pottawatomie  poisoned  on  the  Mosquito  while 
drunk.     Frequently  the  case. 

"30.  Arrival  of  the  steamer  Wilmington  with  provisions. 
A  war  of  extermination  appears  preparing  around  the  poor 
Pottawatomies.  Fifty  large  cannons  have  been  landed,  ready 
charged  with  the  most  murderous  grape  shot,  each  contain- 
ing thirty  gallons  of  whisky,  brandy,  rum  or  alcohol.  The 
boat  was  not  as  yet  out  of  sight  when  the  skirmishes  com- 
menced. After  the  fourth,  fifth  and  sixth  discharges,  the  con- 
fusion became  great  and  appalling.  In  all  directions  men, 
women  and  children  were  seen  tottering  and  falling;  the 
war-whoop,  the  merry  Indian's  song,  cries,  savage  roarings, 
formed  a  chorus.  Quarrel  succeeded  quarrel.  Blows  fol- 
lowed blows.  The  club,  the  tomahawk,  spears,  butcher 
knives,  brandished  together  in  the  air.  Strange!  astonishing! 
only  one  man  in  this  dreadful  aflfray  was  drowned  in  the 
Missouri,  another  severely  stabbed,  and  several  noses  lost. 
The  prominent  point,  as  you  well  know,  the  Pottawatomies 
particularly  aim  at  when  well  corned. 

*  Life,  Letters  and  Travel  of  Father  Pierre  Juan  De 
Smet,  S.  J.,  Vol.  I,  pp.  172-176.  0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  195 

"I  shudder  at  the  deed.  A  squaw  offered  her  little  boy 
four  years  old,  to  the  crew  of  the  boat  for  a  few  bottles  of 
whisky. 

"I  know  from  good  authority  that  upwards  of  eighty 
barrels  of  whisky  are  on  the  line  ready  to  be  brought  in  at 
the  payment. 

"No  agent  here  seems  to  have  the  power  to  put  the  laws 
in  execution. 

"May  31.  Drinking  all  day.  Drunkards  by  the  dozen. 
Indians  are  selling  horses,  blankets,  guns,  their  all,  to  have 
a  lick  at  the  cannon.  Four  dollars  a  bottle!  Plenty  at  the 
price.     Detestable  traffic. 

"June  3.  A  woman  with  child,  mother  of  four  young 
children,  was  murdered  this  morning  near  the  issue-house. 
Her  body  presented  the  most  horrible  spectacle  of  savage 
cruelty;  she  was  literally  cut  up. 

"4.  Burial  of  the  unhappy  woman.  Among  the  provis- 
ions placed  in  her  grave  were  several  bottles  of  whisky.  A 
good  idea  if  all  had  been  buried  with  her. 

"June  5.  A  drunken  Pottawatomie  killed  a  Sauk.  The 
murderer  after  the  perpetration  of  the  deed,  was  mortally 
stabbed  by  his  own  father-in-law.  Indian  way  of  redressing 
wrongs. 

"N.  Rumor.  Four  lowas,  three  Pottawatomies,  one  Kick- 
apoo  are  said  to  have  been  killed  in  drunken  frolics. 

"7.  Attempt  at  murder.  A  Pottawatomie  was  discov- 
ered endeavoring  to  kill  his  aunt,  our  next  neighbor.  Timely 
assistance,  a  knock  down,  prevented  him. 

"11.  Another  bluff  accident.  Severe  scalding.  An  Iowa 
drew  a  knife  to  stab  a  companion,  when  another  friend  with- 
out the  least  ceremony  or  hesitation,  poured  over  the  ag- 
gressor's head  a  full  kettle  of  boiling  soup.  The  unhappy 
man  escaped  death,  lost  his  hair  only,  and  presents  a  melan- 
choly appearance  amongst  his  kindred. 

"16.     A    monster    in    human    shape.      On    the    Mosquito. 


196    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

[Creek],  a  savage  returning  home  from  a  night's  debauch, 
wrested  his  infant  son  from  the  breast  of  his  mother  and 
crushed  him  against  a  post  of  his  lodge. 

"17.  Tekchabe,  another  Mosquito  Pottawatomie,  shot 
an  Indian  through  the  thigh  merely  for  the  pleasure  of  kill- 
ing, and  finished  the  unhappy  man  with  the  butt  of  his  gun; 
pounding  the  head  literally  to  atoms.  The  nephew  of  the 
murdered  individual,  as  a  matter  of  course,  stole  up  to  Tek- 
chabe's  camp,  found  him  lying  down  apparently  composing 
himself  to  sleep  and  shot  him  instantly  through  the  head. 
This  whole  affair  was  settled  within  twenty  minutes  time. 

"18.  Arrival  of  a  sub-agent,  Mr.  Cowper.  His  presence 
seems  to  keep  the  whisky  sellers  in  some  awe,  "Don't  know 
what  he  might  or  will  do."  Secure  the  liquor  in  cages.  The 
many  murders  committed  act  powerfully  upon  the  minds  of 
the  Indians.  They  begged  the  agent  in  council  to  prevent  the 
poison  being  brought  among  them. 

"June  20.  A  young  brother  of  McPherson  killed  his  as- 
sistant blacksmith  of  the  Pottawatomies,  a  Mr.  Case  an  old 
man;  shot  him  through  the  head.  Got  clear  in  the  court  at 
Liberty. 

"July  6.  A  company  of  dragoons  from  Fort  Leavenworth 
arrived  at  Bellevue  with  the  Omaha  women  whom  the  Sauks 
had  surrendered  to  them,  and  delivered  them  over  to  their 
relations.  Three  of  the  dragoons,  in  crossing  the  Platte  op- 
posite the  Otoe  village  were  drowned. 

"Aug.  4.    Arrival  of  the  Antelope.     More  whisky  landed. 

"6.  An  encounter  lately  took  place  between  the  Omahas 
and  Sioux;  originating  in  the  stealing  of  a  few  horses  by  the 
latter.    About  forty  are  said  to  have  been  slain  on  both  sides. 

"7.  The  son  of  the  prophet  of  the  Kickapoos  killed  the 
blacksmith  of  the  nation.  It  is  rumored  that  the  white  man 
was  the  aggressor. 

"8.     Arrival  of  St.  Peter's  with  the  annuities. 

"19.     Annuities  $90,000.     Divided  to  the  Indians.     Great 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  197 

gala.    Wonderful  scrappings  of  traders  to  obtain  their  Indian 
credits. 

"20.  Since  the  day  of  payment,  drunkards  are  seen  and 
heard  in  all  places.  Liquor  is  rolled  out  to  the  Indians  by 
whole  barrels;  sold  even  by  white  men  even  in  the  presence 
of  the  agent.  Wagon  loads  of  the  abominable  stuff  arrive 
daily  from  the  settlements;  and  along  with  it  the  very  dregs 
of  our  white  neighbors  and  voyagers  of  the  mountains,  drunk- 
ards, gamblers,  etc.,  etc.  Three  horses  have  been  brought 
to  the  ground  and  killed  with  axes.  Two  more  noses  were 
bit  off,  and  a  score  of  horrible  mutilations  have  taken  place. 
One  has  been  murdered.  Two  women  are  dangerously  ill  of 
bad  usage." 

Pursuant  to  the  powers  conferred  by  Congress  on 
the  President,  in  1802,  authorizing  him  to  take  meas- 
ures to  suppress  the  liquor  traffic  in  the  Indian  coun- 
try, regulations  were  made  by  the  War  Department 
to  prevent  the  traffic.  This,  however,  was  in  the  days 
when  the  rum  ration  was  rampant  in  the  army,  and 
the  carrying  out  of  a  temperance  measure  was  not 
very  thoroughly  done.  This  was  practically  acknowl- 
edged in  a  report  of  Secretary  of  War  James  Barbour, 
made  on  February  16,  1828,  stating  that  such  a  regula- 
tion had  been  made,  but  that  'some  relaxation  was 
made  of  this  rule,  which  permitted  the  use  of  it  (spir- 
its), but  only  along  our  northern  boundary,  and  to 
prevent  the  utter  ruin  of  our  trade  which,  it  was 
thought,  must  have  followed,  if  its  use  were  continued 
by  the  British  traders  on  that  frontier,  and  restricted 
to  ours/'  * 

*  State  Papers,  Twentieth  Congress,  ist  Session,  Doc. 
148. 


198         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Shortly  afterward,  Congress,  by  virtue  of  its  con- 
stitutional powers  to  regulate  commerce  with  Indian 
tribes,*  enacted  (Act  approved  June  30,  1834)  that 
"Every  person  who  shall,  within  the  Indian  country, 
set  up  or  continue  any  distillery  for  manufacturing 
ardent  spirits,  shall  be  liable  to  a  penalty  of  one  thous- 
and dollars ;  and  the  Superintendent  of  Indian  Affairs, 
Indian  agent,  or  sub-agent,  within  the  limits  of  whose 
agency  any  distillery  of  ardent  spirits  is  set  up  or  con- 
tinued, shall  forthwith  destroy  the  same." 

This  law  was  enacted  at  a  time  when  means  of 
transportation  were  meagre,  and  when  liquors  were 
usually  manufactured  in  the  vicinity  of  their  sale.  In 
1847  (Act  of  March  3),  Congress  enacted  that  "no 
annuities,  moneys  or  goods  shall  he  paid  or  distributed 
to  Indians  while  they  are  under  the  influence  of  any 
description  of  intoxicating  liquor  nor  while  there  are 
good  and  sufficient  reasons  leading  the  officers  or 
agents  whose  duty  it  may  be  to  make  such  payments 
or  distribution  to  believe  that  there  is  any  species  of 
intoxicating  liquor  within  convenient  reach  of  the  Ind- 
ians, nor  unless  the  Chiefs  and  head  men  of  the 
tribes  shall  have  pledged  themselves  to  use  all  their  in- 
fluence and  to  make  all  proper  exertions  to  prevent  the 
introduction  and  sale  of  such  liquor  in  their  country." 

Congress,  by  Act  of  February  13,  1862,  made  it 
a  crime  punishable  by  fine  and  imprisonment  to  sell 
liquors  to  Indians  under  the  care  of  a  superintendent 


Constitution,  Art.  I,  Sec.  8. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  199 

or  an  agent,  whether  on  or  off  the  reservation.  The 
constitutionality  of  this  law  was  affirmed  by  the  Uni- 
ted States  Supreme  Court  in  1865.  On  the  revision  of 
the  law,  1873-74,  it  was  so  changed  that  its  penalties 
would  only  apply  to  persons  selling  liquors  on  their 
reservations.  But  the  Act  approved  February  27, 
1877,  restored  the  provisions  of  the  Act  of  1862,  so 
that  persons  engaged  in  selling  liquor  to  Indians,  no 
matter  in  what  locality,  or  who  gave  it  to  them,  be- 
came liable  to  fine  and  imprisonment. 

In  1864  Congress  (Act  approved  March  15,  Sec- 
tion 2140  R.  S.)  enacted  the  following  drastic  search 
and  seizure  law,  which  is  still  in  full  force  and  effect: 

"No  ardent  spirits,  ale,  beer,  wine,  or  intoxicating  liq- 
or  sub-agent,  or  commanding  officer  of  a  military  post,  has 
reason  to  suspect,  or  is  informed  that  any  white  person  or 
Indian  is  about  to  introduce  or  has  introduced  any  spirituous 
liquor  or  wine  into  the  Indian  country  in  violation  of  law, 
such  superintendent,  agent,  sub-agent,  or  commanding  officer 
may  cause  the  boats,  stores,  packages,  wagons,  sleds,  and 
places  of  deposit  of  such  person  to  be  searched;  and  if  any 
such  liquor  is  found  therein,  the  same,  together  with  the 
boats,  teams,  wagons,  and  sleds  used  in  conveying  the  same, 
and  also  the  goods,  packages  and  peltries  of  such  person, 
shall  be  seized  and  delivered  to  the  proper  officer,  and  shall 
be  proceeded  against  by  libel  in  the  proper  court,  and  forfeit- 
ed, one-half  to  the  informer  and  the  other  half  to  the  use  of 
the  United  States;  and  if  such  person  be  a  trader,  his  license 
shall  be  revoked  and  his  bond  put  in  suit.  It  shall  moreover 
be  the  duty  of  any  person  in  the  service  of  the  United  States, 
or  of  any  Indian,  to  take  and  destroy  any  ardent  spirits  or 
wine  found  in  the  Indian  country,  except  such  as  may  be  in- 
troduced therein  by  the  War  Department.     In  all  cases  aris- 


200         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

ing  under  this  and  the  preceding  section   Indians   shall   be 
competent  witnesses."* 

The  rapid  development  of  the  brewing  industry 
and  the  increased  facilities  for  transportation  eventual- 
ly made  necessary  supplemental  legislation  against 
brewery  products.  The  following  Act  was  accordingly 
passed  July  23,  1892,  to  meet  this  emergency: 

"No  ardent  spirits,  ale,  beer,  wine,  or  intoxicating  liq- 
uor or  liquors  of  whatever  kind  shall  be  introduced,  under 
any  pretense,  into  the  Indian  country.  Every  person  who 
sells,  exchanges,  gives,  barters,  or  disposes  of  any  ardent 
spirits,  ale,  beer,  wine,  or  intoxicating  liquors  of  any  kind  to 
any  Indian  under  charge  or  any  Indian  superintendent  or 
agent,  or  introduces  or  attempts  to  introduce  any  ardent 
spirits,  ale,  wine,  beer,  or  intoxicating  liquor  of  any  kind  into 
the  Indian  country  shall  be  punished  by  imprisonment  for  not 
more  than  two  years,  and  by  fine  of  not  more  than  three 
hundred  dollars  for  each  offense.  But  it  shall  be  a  sufficient 
defense  to  any  charge  of  introducing  or  attempting  to  intro- 
duce ardent  spirits,  ale,  beer,  wine  or  intoxicating  liquors  in- 
to the  Indian  country  that  the  acts  charged  were  done  under 
authority  in  writing  from  the  War  Department,  or  any  of- 
ficer duly  authorized  thereunto  by  the  War  Department.  All 
complaints  for  the  arrest  of  any  person  or  persons  made  for 
violation  of  any  of  the  provisions  of  this  act  shall  be  made 

*  The  Indian  Appropriation  Act  for  1908  (34  Stat.  L. 
1017),  extended  this  authority  as  follows:  "The  powers  con- 
ferred by  section  twenty-one  hundred  and  forty  of  the  Re^ 
vised  Statutes  upon  Indian  agents  and  sub-agents,  and  com- 
manding officers  of  military  posts  are  hereby  conferred  upon 
the  special  agent  of  the  Indian  bureau  for  the  suppression 
of  the  liquor  traffic  among  Indians  and  in  the  Indian  country 
and  duly  authorized  deputies  working  under  his  supervision." 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  201 

in  the  county  where  the  oflfense  shall  have  been  committed,  or 
if  committed  upon  or  within  any  reservation  not  included  in 
any  county,  then  in  any  county  adjoining  such  reservation, 
and,  if  in  the  Indian  Territory,  before  the  United  States  court 
commissioner,  or  commissioner  of  the  circuit  court  of  the 
United  States  residing  nearest  the  place  where  the  oflfense 
was  committed,  who  is  not  for  any  reason  disqualified;  but  in 
all  cases  such  arrests  shall  be  made  before  any  United  States 
court  commissioner  residing  in  such  adjoining  county,  or  be- 
fore any  magistrate  or  judicial  oflficer  authorized  by  the  laws 
of  the  state  in  which  such  reservation  is  located  to  issue  war- 
rants for  the  arrest  and  examination  of  offenders  by  section 
ten  hundred  and  fourteen  of  the  Revised  Statutes  of  the  Uni- 
ted States.  And  all  persons  so  arrested  shall,  unless  dis- 
charged upon  examination,  be  held  to  answer  and  stand  trial 
before  the  court  of  the  United  States  having  jurisdiction  of 
the  oflfense."* 

This  Act,  unfortunately,  failed  to  protect  from  the 
liquor  traffic  Indians  who  had  taken  their  lands  in 
severalty  or  to  whom  allotments  had  been  made. 
President  Cleveland  called  attention  of  Congress  to 
this  situation  in  his  message  of  December  7,  1896,!  in 
which  he  said :  "The  Secretary,  the  Commissioner  of 
Indian  Affairs,  and  the  Agents  having  charge  of  In- 
dians to  whom  allotments  have  been  made  strongly 
urge  the  passage  of  a  law  prohibiting  the  sale  of  liquor 
to  allottees  who  have  taken  their  lands  in  severalty.  I 
earnestly  join  in  this  recommendation  and  venture  to 

*  This  law  is  a  revision  and  re-enactment  of  Sec.  2139, 
R.    S. 

t  Messages  and  Papers  of  the  Presidents,  Vol.  IX, 
p.  735. 


202         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

express  the  hope  that  the  Indian  may  be  speedily  pro- 
tected against  this  greatest  of  all  obstacles  to  his  well 
being  and  advancement."  Congress  responded  to  this 
recommendation  with  the  Act  approved  January  30, 
1897,  which  reads: 

'*Be  it  enacted  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representa- 
tives of  the  United  States  of  America  in  Congress  assembled, 
That  any  person  who  shall  sell,  give  away,  dispose  of,  exchange 
or  barter,  any  malt,  spirituous,  or  vinous  liquor,  including 
beer,  ale,  and  wine,  or  any  ardent  or  other  intoxicating  liquor 
of  any  kind  whatsoever,  or  any  essence,  extract,  bitters,  prep- 
aration, compound,  composition,  or  any  article  whatsoever, 
under  any  name,  label,  or  brand,  which  produces  intoxication, 
to  any  Indian  to  whom  allotment  of  land  has  been  made  while 
the  title  to  the  same  shall  be  held  in  trust  by  the  Govern- 
ment, or  to  any  Indian  a  ward  of  the  Government  under 
charge  of  any  Indian  superintendent  or  agent,  or  any  Indian, 
including  mixed  bloods,  over  whom  the  Government,  through 
its  departments,  exercises  guardianship,  and  any  person  who 
shall  introduce  or  attempt  to  introduce  any  malt,  spirituous, 
or  vinous  liquor,  including  beer,  ale,  and  wine,  or  any  ardent 
or  intoxicating  liquor  of  any  kind  whatsoever  into  the  Indian 
country,  which  term  shall  include  any  Indian  allotment  while 
the  title  to  the  same  shall  be  held  in  trust  by  the  Govern- 
ment, or  while  the  same  shall  remain  inalienable  by  the  allot- 
tee without  the  consent  of  the  United  States,  shall  be  pun- 
ished by  imprisonment  for  not  less  than  sixty  days,  and  by  a 
fine  of  not  less  than  one  hundred  dollars  for  the  first  offense 
and  not  less  than  one  hundred  dollars  for  each  offense  there- 
after: Provided,  however,  That  the  person  convicted  shall  be 
committed  until  fine  and  costs  are  paid.  But  it  shall  be  suf- 
ficient defense  to  any  charge  of  introducing  or  attempting  to 
introduce  ardent  spirits,  ale,  beer,  wine,  or  intoxicating  liquors 
into  the  Indian  country  that  the  acts  charged  were  done  un- 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  203 

der  authority,  in  writing,  from  the  War  Department  or  any 
officer  duly  authorized  thereunto  by  the  War  Department." 

This  law,  taken  in  connection  with  the  Act  ap- 
proved July  23,  1892,  and  Section  2140  R.  S.  consti- 
tutes the  existing  legislation.  The  Act  of  1892  is  cur- 
rently construed  by  the  courts  as  fixing  the  maximum 
punishment,  and  laying  down  rules  of  procedure.  The 
Act  of  1897  is  construed  as  fixing  the  minimum  pun- 
ishment.* This  law  suffered  somewhat  at  the  hands 
of  the  United  States  Supreme  Court  in  the  Heff  case, 
in  which  it  was  decided  (April  10,  1905)  "that  when 
the  United  States  grants  the  privileges  of  citizenship 
to  an  Indian,  gives  him  the  benefit  of  and  requires 
him  to  be  subject  to  the  laws,  both  civil  and  criminal, 
of  the  state,  it  places  him  outside  the  reach  of  police 
regulations  on  the  part  of  congress ;  that  the  emanci- 
pation from  Federal  control  thus  created  cannot  be 
set  aside  at  the  instance  of  the  Government  without 
the  consent  of  the  individual  Indian  and  the  State, 
and  that  this  emancipation  from  Federal  control  is 
iiot  affected  by  the  fact  that  the  lands  it  has  granted  to 
the  Indian  are  granted  subject  to  a  condition  against 
alienation  and  encumbrance,  or  the  further  fact  that 

*  In  1895  a  special  law  was  enacted  of  the  most  drastic 
character,  forbidding  the  sale  or  introduction  of  intoxicants 
into  the  Indian  Territory.  This  law  became  obsolete  with 
the  organization  of  the  new  state  of  Oklahoma,  into  which 
was  incorporated  the  former  Indian  Territory. 


\ 


204    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

it  guarantees  to  him  an  interest  in  tribal  or  other 
property."* 

This  decision  draws  a  sharp  line  between  the 
operations  of  Federal  and  State  law.  When  an  In- 
dian receives  a  fee  simple  patent  to  his  allotment  he  is 
em.ancipated  from  Federal  control.  From  that  time 
he  can  be  protected  from  the  liquor  traffic  only  through 
the  operations  of  state  law. 

Following  the  lead  of  the  general  government, 
all  of  the  states  which  have  an  Indian  population 
have  enacted  more  or  less  drastic  legislation  against 
selling  liquor  to  Indians. 

In  1906  Congress  took  another  advance  step. 
The  Act  approved  June  21,  (34  Stat.  L.  328)  appro- 
priated "to  enable  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Af- 
fairs, under  the  direction  of  the  Secretary  of  the  In- 
terior, to  take  action  to  suppress  the  traffic  in  intoxi- 
cating liquors  among  the  Indians,  twenty-five  thou- 
sand dollars,  fifteen  thousand  of  which  to  be  used  ex- 
clusively in  the  Indian  Territory  and  Oklahoma." 
This  appropriation  was  renewed  for  the  fiscal*  year 
1908,  without  the  restrictions  as  to  the  locus  of  the 
expenditures.  The  operations  under  these  two  Acts, 
directed  by  the  Commissioner  of  Indian  Affairs,  met 
with  such  success  that  Congress  appropriated  $40,000 
for  the  work  for  the  fiscal  year  1909.    These  operations 

*  On  Dec.  20,  1909,  the  Supreme  Court  of  the  United 
States  decided  (U.  S.  vs.  Sutton)  that  that  part  of  the  Act 
of  1897  prohibiting  the  introduction  of  liquor  upon  Indian 
allotments   was  valid.  ,    ' 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  205 

were  successful  beyond  expectations  and  Congress  in- 
creased the  appropriation  for  the  fiscal  year  1910  to 
$50,000  and  for  the  year  191 1  to  $80,000. 

From  the  beginning  of  Federal  relations  with  the 
Indian  tribes  1,214  different  treaties  have  been  negoti- 
ated with  them.  The  first  of  these  treaties  to  contain  a 
definite  provision  eliminating  the  liquor  traffic  was 
that  made  with  the  Choctaw  Nation  in  1820.*  Article 
XII  of  this  treaty  reads :  *Tn  order  to  protect  industry 
and  sobriety  among  all  classes  of  the  red  people  in 
the  Nation,  but  particularly  the  poor,  it  is  further  pro- 
vided by  the  parties,  that  the  agent  appointed  to  re- 
side here,  shall  be,  and  is  hereby,  vested  with  full 
power  to  seize  and  confiscate  all  the  whisky  which 
may  be  introduced  in  said  Nation,  except  that  used  at 
public  stands,  or  brought  in  by  permit  of  the  agent  or 
the  principal  chiefs  of  the  three  districts."  This  pro- 
vision, at  the  earnest  solicitation  of  the  chiefs,  was 
strengthened  in  the  treaty  made  with  the  Choctaw 
Nation  September  15,  1830.  Article  X  of  that  treaty 
provided  that  "the  United  States  shall  be  particularly 
obliged  to  assist  to  prevent  ardent  spirits  from  being 
introduced  into  the  Nation."t  This  policy,  originally 
promoted  and  insisted  upon  by  the  Indians  them- 
selves, eventually  became  the  general  plan  of  the  Gov- 
ernment, and  in  later  years  scarcely  a  treaty  was  ne- 
gotiated with  any  Indian  tribe  that  did  not  contain  a 

*     Kappler:     Laws  and  Treaties,  Vol.  II,  p.  135. 
t     Ibid,  p.  223. 


2o6    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

clause  obligating  the  Federal  Government  in  some 
form  to  prevent  the  introduction  of  liquors  into  the 
Indian  country. 

Up  to  the  year  1871  the  Indian  had  been  treated 
by  the  Government,  legally,  as  if  he  were  some  strange 
monster  from  another  world.  In  law  he  was  not  a 
citizen,  he  was  not  a  woman  or  minor,  he  was  not  an 
alien,  he  was  not  a  convict  nor  a  lunatic,  he  was  not  a 
slave.  A  mass  of  tangled  legislation  had  grown  up  re- 
garding the  status  of  the  Indian  that  was  incompre- 
hensible even  to  the  legislators  themselves.  Horatio 
Seymour  attempted  to  describe  this  situation  when  he 
said :  "Every  human  being  born  upon  our  continent, 
can  go  into  our  courts  for  protection — except  those 
who  once  owned  this  country.  The  cannibals  from 
the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  the  worst  criminals  from 
Europe,  Asia,  or  Africa,  can  appeal  to  the  law  and 
courts  for  their  rights  of  person  and  property — all 
save  our  native  Indians,  who,  above  all,  should  be  pro- 
tected from  wrong." 

In  the  Indian  Appropriation  Act  approved  March 
3,  1871  (16  Stat.  X.  566;  carried  into  Section  2079  R- 
S.),  Congress  in  sheer  desperation  provided  that,  "no 
Indian  Nation  or  tribe  within  the  territory  of  the 
United  States  shall  be  acknowledged  or  recognized  as 
an  independent  Nation,  tribe,  or  power  with  whom  the 
United  States  may  contract  by  treaty."  Since  that 
time,  "agreements"  have  been  made  by  Congress  with 
tribes  or  bands  of  Indians,  instead  of  treaties.    Indian 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  207 

tribes,  bands  and  individuals,  henceforth,  were  subject 
to  direct  legislation  by  Congress.  This  was  the  first 
step  toward  an  entirely  new  policy  in  dealing  with  the 
aborigines.  The  old  regime  had  been  full  of  mistakes. 
The  Indians  were  misunderstood  by  the  whites,  and 
the  whites  were  not  understood  by  the  Indians.  The 
Government  had  not  always  sent  its  best  men  to  deal 
with  the  Indians.  Under  the  spoils  system,  any  ward 
heeler  too  disreputable  to  be  given  a  position  else- 
where was  often  rewarded  for  political  services  by  be- 
ing made  an  Indian  agent  or  a  post-trader.  The  close 
of  this  period  was  mafked  by  an  incident  which  illus- 
trates the  conditions  that  had  arisen  under  the  old 
Governmental  policy.  During  the  troubles  with  the 
Apaches  in  1870-71  four  hundred  braves  had  been 
gathered  at  Fort  Grant,  where  they  were  fed  on  con- 
dition of  being  good.  They  were  not  very  good,  but 
still  were  about  as  good  as,  or  better,  than  the  whites. 
Massacres,  troubles  and  scandals  resulted.  The  Fed- 
eral grand  jury  investigated  the  matter  and  reported: 

"We  find  that  the  hostile  bands  of  Indians  in  the  terri- 
tory are  led  by  many  different  chiefs,  who  have  generally 
adopted  the  policy  of  cochise,  making  the  points  where  the 
Indians  are  fed  the  base  of  their  supplies  for  ammunition, 
guns  and  recruits  for  their  raids,  as  each  hostile  chief  usually 
draws  warriors  from  other  bands  when  he  makes  an  import- 
ant raid  upon  the  citizens,  or  the  neighboring  State  of  Sonora, 
where  they  are  continuously  making  their  depredations.  We 
find  that  the  habit  of  beastly  drunkenness  has  generally  pre- 
vailed, with  few  marked  exceptions,  among  the  officers  com- 
manding at  Camp  Grant,  Camp  Goodwin,  and  Camp  Apache, 


2o8         THE   FEDERAL    GOVERNMENT 

where  the  Apache  Indians  have  been  fed;  that  the  rations 
issued  at  these  camps  to  the  Indians  have  frequently  been  in- 
sufficient for  their  support,  and  injustly  distributed,  sometimes 
bones  being  issued  instead  of  meat;  that  one  quartermaster 
of  the  United  States  said  he  made  a  surplus  of  tv^elve  thou- 
sand of  corn  in  issuing  rations  to  the  Indians  at  Camp  Good- 
win. We  find  that  a  commanding  officer,  while  commanding 
at  Camp  Apache,  gave  liquor  to  the  Apache  Indians,  and  got 
beastly  drunk  with  them  from  whisky  belonging  to  the 
Hospital  Department  of  the  United  States  Government;  also, 
that  another  officer  of  the  United  States  Army  gave  liquor  to 
the  said  Indians  at  said  camp;  that  officers  of  the  United  States 
Army,  at  those  camps  where  Indians  are  fed,  are  in  the  habit 
of  using  their  official  position  to  break  the  chastity  of  the 
Indian  women;  that  the  present  regulations  of  Camp  Grant, 
with  the  Apache  Indians  on  the  reservation,  are  such,  that 
the  whole  body  of  Indians  might  leave  the  reservation  and 
be  gone  many  days  without  the  knowledge  of  the  command- 
ing officer.  In  conclusion  of  the  labors  of  this  United  States 
Grand  Jury,  we  would  say  that  five  hundred  of  our  neighbors, 
friends,  and  fellow-citizens  have  fallen  by  the  murdering 
hand  of  the  Apache  Indian,  clothing  in  the  garb  of  mourning 
the  family  circle  in  many  of  the  hamlets,  towns  and  cities  of 
all  the  states  of  our  country.  This  blood  cries  from  the 
ground  of  the  American  people  for  justice — justice  to  all 
men." 

Beginning  with  the  Act  of  1871,  referred  to,  the 
Government  gradually  adopted  an  entirely  new  policy 
in  dealing  with  the  Indian.  Instead  of  keeping  him 
upon  a  reservation,  as  in  a  zoological  garden,  the  In- 
dian more  and  more  began  to  be  treated  as  a  re- 
sponsible being.  The  policy  of  breaking  up  reserva- 
tions, and  allotting  the  lands  to  the  Indians  in  sev- 
eralty began  to  be  inaugurated.     Schools  began  to  be 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  209 

established  in  the  Indian  country  itself.  The  Indians 
were  encouraged  to  travel  and  mingle  with  the  whites. 
The  result  was  a  better  understanding  between  the 
two  races.  The  Indians  began  to  come  into  full  citi- 
zenship, began  to  seek  and  obtain  employment  in  the 
same  vocations  as  the  white  man,  began  to  marry  and 
give  in  marriage  with  the  Anglo-Saxon;  and  the  In- 
dian question,  which  has  been  a  nightmare  for  two 
hundred  years,  begins  to  give  promise  of  an  ultimate 
solution. 


The  Federal  Possessions. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

When  any  new  territory  has  been  acquired  by  the 
Federal  Government,  either  by  conquest,  theft, 
purchase  or  otherwise,  it  has  been  its  policy  to  set  up, 
as  speedily  as  possible,  some  form  of  government  in 
which  the  local  population  has  more  or  less  part.  The 
responsibility  for  regulating  the  traffic  in  intoxicants 
has  been  turned  over  to  these  governments  as  soon  as 
established.  Section  30  of  the  "Act  to  provide  a  gov- 
ernment for  the  Territory  of  Hawaii"  contained  the 
words  "nor  shall  spirituous  or  intoxicating  liquors  be 
sold  except  under  such  regulations  and  restrictions  as 
the  Territorial  legislature  shall  provide."*  A  similar 
course  has  been  adopted  in  the  case  of  Porto  Rico  and 
the  PhiHppines.  Posts  and  islands  held  purely  for 
military  or  naval  purposes  are  governed  by  military 
or  naval  governors,  such  government  being  essentially 
autocratic.  The  treatment  of  the  liquor  traffic  by 
these  governments  has  varied  according  to  local  con- 
ditions and  the  character  of  the  governing  officers. 
The  Indian  Territory,  District  of  Columbia  and 
Alaska  have  been  important  "possessions"  governed 

*    Approved  April  30,  1900.    31  Stat.  L.  p.  150.  ^ 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  211 

wholly  and  directly  by  the  Federal  Government. 
These,  then,  may  properly  be  considered  in  this  con- 
nection. 

From  the  beginning,  Congress  has  steadily  main- 
tained the  policy  of  prohibition  of  the  traffic  in  intoxi- 
cants in  the  Indian  Territory.  This  principle  has 
again  and  again  been  affirmed  in  treaties  with  the 
Five  Civilized  Tribes.  The  general  laws  of  Congress 
against  selling  liquor  to  Indians  or  "introducing"  the 
same  into  the  Indian  country  have  always  applied  to 
the  Indian  Territory.  Moreover,  Congress  enacted  a 
special  law*  of  the  most  drastic  character,  forbidding 
the  traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors  in  this  territory.  At 
times  there  has  been  much  criticism  of  the  Federal 
officers  appointed  to  administer  the  laws,  but  the  ap- 
pointment of  unsuitable  men  has  been  due  to  a  defect 
of  administration  rather  than  a  variation  in  the  prohi- 
bition policy  of  Congress. 

The  District  of  Columbia,  the  territory  of  which 
is  now  practically  identical -with  the  City  of  Wash- 
ington, came  under  the  control  of  the  Federal  Gov- 
ernment on  February  27,  1801,  the  city  being  incor- 
porated on  May  3  of  the  following  year.  It  was  a 
Capital  built  in  the  wilderness.  Th^  site  had  pre- 
viously been  owned  by  a  man  named  Pope,  who  called 
the  place  "Rome,"  and  the  east  branch  of  the  Potomac 
was  the  "Tiber."  The  District  was  formed  into  two 
counties,  the  one  on  the  Virginia  side,  the  other  on 

*     Act  approved  March  i,  1895.    28  Stat.  L.  p.  687. 


212    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

the  Maryland  side.  The  laws  of  Virginia  were  ex- 
tended over  the  Virginia  county,  while  the  laws  of 
Maryland  prevailed  in  the  Maryland  county.  A  special 
court  was  created  to  administer  these  laws.  The  Act 
incorporating  the  City  of  Washington  provided  a  city 
council  of  two  houses,  elected  by  the  taxpayers  who 
were  residents.  The  mayor  was  appointed  by  the 
President.  Under  the  original  ordinances  of  the  city 
council,  it  cost  $i  per  year  to  keep  a  female  slave,  $8 
to  run  a  saloon,  and  $9  to  keep  a  female  dog.  The 
first  two  considerable  schoolhouses  were  provided 
for  by  a  lottery.*  The  license  fee  for  a  saloon  re- 
mained very  low,  never  reaching  more  than  $100,  until 
the  passage  of  the  Act  of  March  3,  1893,  which  raised 
a  barroom  license  to  $400.  This  has  subsequently 
been  doubled,  making  the  present  license  $800. 

In  the  history  of  the  District  an  enormous  amount 
of  legislation  has  been  enacted  regulating  the  behavior 
of  saloonkeepers  and  slaves.f  So  far  as  liquor  selling 
is  concerned,  these  provisions  were  along  the  same 


*  In  1812  the  Board  of  Aldermen  voted  to  raise  $10,000 
for  this  purpose  by  means  of  a  lottery.  It  was  approved  by 
President  Madison  on  Nov.  23  of  that  year. 

t  In  1848  the  New  York  Anti-Slavery  Society  published 
the  "Black  Code,"  compiled  by  Worthington  G.  Snethen,  giv- 
ing a  text  of  eight  Federal  and  twenty-eight  Maryland  Acts, 
besides  16  City  of  Georgetown  ordinances  and  29  City  of 
Washington  ordinances,  all  regulating  the  conduct  of  negro 
slaves,  and  all  in  force  in  the  District. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  213 

lines  as  the  average  laws  restricting  the  traffic,  current 
at  this  time. 

Washington  had  two  periods  of  prohibition  in  iti. 
history.  One  by  order  of  the  Board  of  Health,  and  the 
other  by  a  direct  vote  of  the  people.  In  1830  during 
an  epidemic,  the  Board  of  Health,  acting  under  an 
opinion  of  Attorney  General  Wirt,  declared  the  selling 
of  liquor  a  nuisance  and  closed  the  shops  for  three 
months.*  During  the  year  1853,  when  the  agitation 
for  state  prohibition  raged  all  over  the  nation,  the 
question  became  an  issue  in  the  Washington  City 
election.  The  "dry"  ticket  won  by  a  vote  of  1,963  to 
991.  After  a  lively  season  of  intrigue,  the  Board  of 
Alderman  and  Common  Council,  in  October,  1854, 
passed  an  ordinance  forbidding  absolutely  all  tippling 


*  The  text  of  the  resolution  of  the  Board  of  Health 
was  as  follows: 

"The  Board  being  fully  impressed  with  the  belief  that  the 
use  of  ardent  spirits  is  highly  prejudicial  to  health,  and  the 
corporate  authorities  having  decided  that  this  body  possesses 
full  power  to  prohibit  and  remove  all  nuisances,  and  the  late 
Attorney  General,  Mr.  Wirt,  having  officially  given  it  as  his 
opinion  that  the  Board  of  Health  have,  under  the  charter  and 
the  acts  of  the  city  councils,  sufficient  authority  to  do  any,  and 
everything  which  the  health  of  the  city  may  require: 

"Therefore,  Resolved,  That  the  vending  of  ardent  spirit, 
in  whatever  quantity,  is  considered  a  NUISANCE — and,  is 
hereby  directed  to  be  discontinued  for  the  space  of  90  days 
from  this  date. 

"By  order  of  the  Board  of  Health."--Fifth  Report  Amer- 
ican Temperance  Society,  p.  115. 


214         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

houses.*  The  law,  however,  never  went  into  effect. 
A  test  casef  was  promptly  instituted  and  an  appeal 
taken  to  the  United  States  Circuit  Court,  where 
Judge  Morsel],  on  December  23,  decided  that,  while 
the  Board  had  the  power  to  regulate,  it  had  not  the 
power  to  prohibit  the  traffic  in  intoxicants.  So  the 
tippling  houses  remained  over  the  protests  of  the 
voters.  Congress  foisted  upon  the  people  the  tippling 
houses  against  their  expressed  wish.  On  July  14, 
1862,  these  Washington  whisky  sellers  so  demoralized 
the  Federal  troops  that  Congress  was  compelled  to 

*  The  Act  passed  the  Board  proper  on  Sept.  25,  1854, 
by  a  vote  of  10  to  3.  It  passed  the  Board  of  Common  Coun- 
cil Oct.  2,  by  a  vote  of  17  to  3,  and  was  approved  by  Mayor 
John  T.  Powers.    The  text  of  the  ordinance  was  as  follows: 

"Be  it  enacted,  &c.  that  from  and  after  the  first  Monday 
of  November  next,  tippling  houses  or  shops  be,  and  the  same 
are  hereby  prohibited  in  the  city  of  Washington;  and  it  shall 
not  be  lawful  after  the  first  Monday  in  November,  for  any 
person  in  any  part  of  the  city  of  Washington,  to  sell  or  bar- 
ter any  brandy,  rum,  gin,  whisky,  or  other  spirituous  liquors, 
mixed,  wine  or  cordial,  strong  and  lager  beer,  or  cider,  in 
quantities  less  than  a  pint;  and  any  person  or  persons  who 
shall  sell  or  barter  as  aforesaid,  shall  on  conviction  thereof, 
forfeit  and  pay  a  fine  for  each  and  every  offence,  of  twenty 
dollars,  to  be  collected,  and  applied  as  other  fines  due  this 
corporation;  and  on  failure  to  pay  said  fine,  or  of  securing  the 
payment  of  the  same;  the  person  or  persons  so  offending  shall 
be  committed  to  the  workhouse  for  a  term  not  less  than  seven 
or  more  than  sixty  days." — Washington  Globe,  Sept.  26, 
1854;  National  Intelligencer,  Sept.  27,  1854;  Journal  of  the 
American  Temperance  Union,  Nov.  1854,  p.  167. 

t     Charles  Werner  vs.  the  Corporation  of  Washington. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  215 

act  and  prohibited  the  sale  of  liquor  to  soldiers  and 
volunteers  in  the  District  of  Columbia.  The  saloons 
were  also  closed  during  the  grand  review  at  the  close 
of  the  Civil  War,  when  two  hundred  thousand 
troops  marched  through  the  streets. 

In  1871  Congress  organized  the  District*  into  a 
full  Territorial  form  of  government,  and  established 
a  legislature.  The  legislature,  however,  was  so  prodi- 
gal in  its  appropriations  in  its  first  session,  that  Con- 
gress decided  that  the  people  were  not  yet  fit  for  self- 
government.  In  1874  the  Territorial  form  of  govern- 
ment was  abolished,  and  the  present  Commissioner 
form  established,  Congress  making  the  laws  directly. 

During  the  eighties,  when  so  many  states  were 
voting  on  the  question  of  constitutional  prohibition, 
various  attempts  were  made  to  induce  Congress  to 
submit  to  the  people  of  the  District  the  question  of 
prohibition  which  they  had  adopted  by  a  vote  of  al- 
most two  to  one  in  1853.  Early  in  1884  Senator  Col- 
qiiitt  introduced  such  a  bill,  but  the  final  result  was 
only  the  passage  of  an  Act  to  raise  the  barroom  license 
to  $100,  at  which  figure  it  remained  until  1893,  when 
it  was  quadrupled.  Since  1906  these  efforts  have  been 
renewed  without  result.  During  the  winter  of  1907-8, 
a  thousand  women  and  children  of  the  city  thronged 
the  corridors  of  the  Capitol  on  the  occasion  of  a 
Committee  hearing  the  proposal. 


*     In  1846  Congress  had  receded  that  portion  of  the  Dis- 
trict South  of  the  river  to  the  state  of  Virginia. 


2i6         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

ALASKA.  The  beginnings  of  civilization  in 
Alaska  were  a  continuous  drunken  orgy.  The  coun- 
try was  discovered  by  Russians  in  1741.  The  Russian 
fur  traders  gave  their  employees  rations  of  rum. 
Craftsmen  were  paid  in  rum.  Even  the  Russian 
priests  drew  rations  of  rum.  The  Russian  Governor 
and  other  officials  went  on  frequent  drunken  de- 
bauches. The  natives  were  induced  to  make  unfavor- 
able treaties  through  getting  the  head  men  drunk. 
The  Russian-American  fur  company  exchanged  rum 
for  furs.*  In  the  beginning  of  the  19th  century  Ameri- 
can and  British  ships  began  to  engage  in  the  Alaska 
trade  along  the  same  general  principles.  This  led  to 
the  ukase  of  1821,  forbidding  foreign  ships  from  trad- 
ing in  these  waters,  which  act  produced  such  vigorous 
protests  in  America  and  Great  Britain  that  the  order 
was  never  carried  out.  The  affair  resulted,  however, 
in  the  international  treaties  of  1824-5.  These  treaties 
did  not  permit  the  foreigner  to  traffic  in  spirits. 
Therein  Russian  craft  won,  for  their  traders  continued 
the  practice  of  giving  the  natives  rum  for  their  furs, 
and  the  foreigners  found  that  without  rum  they  could 
make  no  purchases.  The  always  aggressive  Hudson 
Bay  Company  gradually  encroached  upon  the  Russian 
trade,  and  eventually  began  using  rum  in  their  traffic 
despite  treaty  obligations.     The  competition  of  these 


*  H.  H.  Bancroft's  Works,  Vol.  XXXIII,  pp.  516,  519, 
581,  438,  439,  463,  560;  Sir  Geo.  Simpson's  Report  on  the 
Hudson  Bay  Co.,  i8S7,  P-  369. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  217 

two  powerful  companies  in  the  rum  and  fur  trade  so 
debauched  the  natives  that  they  were  unfitted  for 
gathering  the  necessary  fur.  This  situation  led  to  an 
agreement  between  the  two  companies,  in  1842,  in 
which  both  companies  contracted  to  abolish  entirely 
the  giving  or  bartering  of  rum  to  the  natives.*  This 
situation  continued  in  force  during  the  remainder  of 
Russia's  sovereignty. 

The  purchase  of  the  Territory  by  the  United 
States  in  1867  was  followed  by  the  usual  influx  of 
gamblers,  adventurers,  whisky  peddlers,  office  seekers 
and  the  dissolute  of  all  classes.  Although  the  actual 
transfer  of  sovereignty  did  not  occur  until  October 
18  of  that  year,  the  Federal  Government  had,  months 
before,  begun  taking  steps  to  keep  out  the  liquor.  As 
early  as  June  5,  the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury  had 
issued  instructions  to  the  collector  of  the  Port  of  San 
Francisco  to  prevent  the  shipment  of  "ardent  spirits." 
On  September  2,  six  weeks  before  the  transfer,  Major 
General  Halleck,  in  command  of  the  Department  of 
the  Pacific,  requested  President  Grant  to  declare  by 
proclamation  the  newly  acquired  Russian  territory  to 
be  "Indian  country,"  in  order  to  prevent  the  introduc- 
tion of  intoxicating  liquors.  On  the  following  year 
Congress  specifically  authorized  the  President  to  pro- 
hibit the  liquor  traffic  in  the  new  country,  but  still  the 
President  did  not  act.     It  was  not  until  February  8, 


*     Simpson:    Report  on  the  Hudson  Bay  Co.,  1857,  p.  369. 


2i8         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

1870,  that  the  President  issued  the  order*  forbidding 
the  importation  of  distilled  spirits  into  Alaska.  There 
then  followed  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  prohibition, 
sometimes  badly  enforced.  At  first  the  laws  were 
weak,  but  Congress  was  generally  prompt  to  provide 
remedies  when  requested.  The  initial  prosecutions, 
begun  two  years  after  the  order,  developed  the  fact 
that  the  Act  of  1868  conferred  no  jurisdiction  upon  any 
court  to  try  liquor  cases.  Congress  remedied  this  with 
certain  sections  inserted  into  the  Sundry  Civil  Appro- 
priation Actf  of  March  3,  1873,  forbidding  the  sale  of 
spirits  or  wine  in  Alaska  and  prohibiting  the  erection 
of  distilleries  therein.  Jurisdiction  was  also  conferred 
upon  the  United  States  Courts.  A  few  months  later, 
the  Attorney  General  rendered  an  opinion  to  the  ef- 
fect that  Alaska  was  to  be  regarded  as  "Indian  coun- 
try," and  that  no  spirituous  liquors  or  wines  could  be 
introduced  therein  without  an  order  from  the  War  De- 
partment. In  1874  the  War  Department  issued  regu- 
lations under  which  liquor  could  be  introduced  for  cer- 
tain purposes,  but  these  privileges    were    so    grossly 


*  The  order  read,  "Under  and  in  pursuance  of  the  au- 
thority vested  in  me  by  the  provisions  of  the  second  section  of 
the  Act  of  Congress,  approved  on  the  27th  day  of  July,  1868, 
entitled  "An  Act  to  extend  the  laws  of  the  United  States,  re- 
lating to  customs,  commerce  and  navigation  over  the  terri- 
tory ceded  to  the  United  States  by  Russia and  for  oth- 
er purposes,  the  importation  of  distilled  spirits  into  and  with- 
in the  District  of  Alaska  is  hereby  prohibited." 

t     17  Stat.  L.  p.  530. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  219 

abused  that  they  were  withdrawn  a  year  later.  In 
1875  another  legal  tangle  developed.  The  law  re- 
quired that  a  prisoner  must  not  be  detained  more  than 
five  days  before  removal.  As  the  nearest  District 
Court  was  at  Portland,  Oregon,  a  thousand  miles 
away  and  only  a  monthly  steamer  was  in  operation,  it 
was  impossible  to  comply  with  the  terms  of  the  law, 
and  the  judges  would  turn  the  criminals  loose  as  fast 
as  they  were  arraigned.  The  appointment  of  an  In- 
dian agent  for  the  Territory  only  partly  improved 
the  situation.  In  despair  the  President,  in  1877,  re- 
lieved the  War  Department  of  the  management  of  the 
Territory  and  turned  it  over  to  the  Treasury  Depart- 
ment. From  this  period  until  1884,  Alaska  was  merely 
a  customs  district,  governed  by  regulations  made  by 
the  Secretary  of  the  Treasury,  and  protected  in  the 
southeast  corner  by  a  small  naval  vessel.  In  1881  the 
Treasury  issued  instructions  to  allow  the  importation 
of  beer  and  wine,  alleging  that  distilled  spirits  only 
were  prohibited.  The  administration  of  the  Treasury 
Department  was  no  improvement  upon  that  of  the 
military,  the  collection  of  revenue  being  apparently 
the  principal  object  of  the  administration.  Congress, 
by  an  Act  approved  May  17,  1884,  erected  a  skeleton 
of  a  government  for  the  purchased  Territory,  creating 
a  governor,  judge,  commissioners,  district  attorney 
and  marshals,  all  appointed  by  the  President.  Sec- 
tion 14  of  the  Act  prohibited  the  importation,  manu- 
facture and  sale  of  intoxicating  liquors  in  the  district 
except   for  medicinal,  mechanical  and   scientific   pur- 


220         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

poses.    The  President  was  directed  to  make  necessary 
regulations  to  carry  the  law  into  effect. 

The  period  from  the  passage  of  this  law  until 
1899  was  another  season  of  scandal.  It  was  in  this 
period  that  the  infamous  "spoils  system"  began  to  re- 
ceive its  death  blow,  and,  as  with  a  snake,  the  tail  died 
last.  In  political  management  it  had  become  the  cur- 
rent practice  to  send  to  a  post  in  Alaska  any  politician 
whom  it  was  necessary  to  reward,  and  who  was  too 
notorious  a  scoundrel  to  appoint  to  any  position  at 
home.*  Under  this  system  Alaska  became  a  rival  of 
Dahomey  as  an  example  of  misgovernment  and  mal- 
administration. A  period  of  "free  rum"  prevailed  in 
which  lawlessness  was  but  little  restrained.  This 
situation  was  pointed  out  as  the  "horrible  effect  of  pro- 
hibition" with  great  industry,  principally  by  the 
whisky  outlaws  themselves.  In  sheer  desperation. 
Governor  John  G.  Brady  went  to  Washington  and  per- 
sonally appealed  to  Congress  for  a  high  license  law. 
Brady  having  gone  to  Alaska  as  a  missionary  twenty- 
five  years  before,  his  opinions  had  great  weight. 
Alaska  was  given  a  high  license  law  in  the  Act  ap- 
proved March  3,  1899.  Barroom  licenses  were  fixed  at 
$500  to  $1,500  per  annum,  according  to  the  population. 
The   usual   high   license   restrictions,    prohibition    of 


*  In  1898  Governor  John  G.  Brady  informed  the  writer 
that  by  personal  investigation,  he  found  that  eleven  per  cent 
of  the  Federal  officers  in  Alaska  at  that  time  were  under  in- 
dictment for  crimes  of  various  sorts.  0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  221 

sales  to  Indians,  intoxicated  persons,  minors,  etc.,  pre- 
vail, but  are  largely  ignored  by  the  liquor  dealers. 
Some  modifications  have  since  been  made  of  the  Act 
as  to  details.  The  discovery  of  gold  in  recent  years 
has  attracted  such  widespread  attention  that  Alaska 
is  apt  to  have  more  consideration  at  the  hands  of  Con- 
gress in  the  future  than  in  the  past.  The  history  of 
the  country  has  not  been  a  credit  to  the  United  States, 
For  the  most  part,  whether  under  prohibition  or  high 
license,  it  has  been  merely  a  game  preserve  for  the 
whisky  peddler. 


Sidelights  on  Congress. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

In  theory,  Congress  has  always  represented  the 
people.  In  the  concrete,  the  people  have  not  always 
realized  the  full  benefits  of  this  high  ideal.  Between 
the  real  wishes  of  the  masses  and  the  Acts  of  Congress 
there  has  been  an  intervening  dark  jungle  where  po- 
litical wolves  lived,  in  which  conventions  have  been 
manipulated,  beneficent  proposals  ambushed,  injured 
special  interests  placated,  campaign  funds  raised, 
much  needed  votes  procured  by  decoy  methods,  poli- 
ticians corrupted  and  the  desires  of  the  people 
thwarted.  In  any  contest  with  intrenched  wrong  in 
this  wilderness,  an  overwhelming  demonstration  of 
public  sentiment  has  usually  been  required  to  establish 
the  people's  will.  Yet,  in  spite  of  these  difficulties  and 
discouragements,  Congress  has,  with  some  discounts, 
modifications  and  marginal  readings,  more  or  less 
voiced  the  average  sentiment  of  the  nation. 

The  seamy  side  of  Congressional  life  always  had 
its  principal  center  and  inspiration  in  the  two  drink- 
ing establishments  formerly  existing  in  the  basement 
of  the  National  Capitol  building  in  Washington.  Pub- 
lished descriptions  of  life  in  Washington  during  the 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  223 

first  forty  years  of  its  existence  were  streaked  with 
stories  of  scandal  and  Bacchanalian  carousals  in  the 
gambling  houses  and  saloons  along  the  "corduroy" 
pavement*  of  Pennsylvania  Avenue.  The  early  ses- 
sions of  Congress  made  Washington  resemble,  in  a 
disagreeable  degree,  the  "wide  open"  mining  towns  of 
the  far  west.  PubHc  lotteries,  the  duello,  brazen  gam- 
blers, drunken  statesmen  and  the  raucous  female  were 
painfully  in  evidence. 

The  ebb  and  flow  of  public  sentiment  in  moral 
matters  has  been  followed  by  similar  changes — - 
changes  for  both  better  and  worse — in  the  moral  Hfe 
of  the  Capital.  The  coming  and  going  of  the  two 
drinking  places  in  the  halls  of  legislation  serves  well 
as  a  barometer  to  measure  these  variations.  The 
original  establishments  were  merely  bars,  and  not 
very  orderly  bars — like  those  of  the  average  saloon. 
The  temperance  reform,  initiated  as  a  national  organ- 
ized movement  in  1827,  had  assumed  extensive  pro- 
portions during  the  thirties,  during  which  a  strong 
prohibition  sentiment  had  been  developing.  This  in- 
fluence had  so  marked  an  eflfect  on  Congress  that  in 
September,  1838,  a  joint  standing  rule  was  adopted 
that  "no  spirituous  liquors  shall  be  offered  for  sale,  or 
exhibited  within  the  Capitol,  or  on  the  public  grounds, 
adjacent  thereto,"  and  orders  were  given  to  the  police 

*  The  first  "pavement"  on  the  street  was  made  by  laying 
logs  in  the  marsh  crossways  of  the  street  and  covering  them 
with  dirt.     Hence  the  term. 


224         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

officials  to  enforce  the  regulation.*  While  spirits  were 
eliminated  by  this  act,  beer  and  wine  remained,  so 
drunkenness  continued.  On  February  26  another 
amendment  to  the  rules  was  adopted  forbidding  the 
sale  of  all  intoxicating  liquors,  and  another  proposal  to 
abolish  the  restaurant  itself  narrowly  escaped  pas- 
sage.f 

After  the  Civil  War  the  conduct  of  the  two 
restaurants  was  left  to  standing  committees  of  the 
House  and  of  the  Senate.  In  this  time,  when  public 
attention  was  distracted  with  the  internecine  strife, 
the  sale  of  liquor  was  renewed  in  the  building.  This 
was  accompanied  by  a  return  to  the  orgies  of  the 
olden  time,  centering  in  these  drinking  establish- 
ments in  the  basement.  For  a  quarter  of  a  century, 
ending  with  the  year  1900,  the  inauguration  of  the 
President  was  accompanied  by  such  wholesale  drunk- 
enness that  these  carousals  were  invariably  made  the 
subject  of  special  articles  by  metropolitan  daily  pa- 
pers. Several  times  the  House  passed  bills  to  prohibit 
the  sale  of  liquor  in  these  places,  but  the  Senate  re- 
fused to  concur.  During  the  winter  190.1-2,  both  of 
these  restaurants  were  raided,  the  proprietors  being 
arrested  on  a  police  court  warrant  charging  sales  of 
liquor  without  the  payment  of  a  retail  license.J     The 

*  Second  Report,  American  Temperance  Union,  Per- 
manent Temperance  Documents,  Vol.  II,  p.  21. 

t     Niles'  Register,  Vol.  LXVI,  p.  14. 

t  These  warrants  were  sworn  out  by  the  writer  and  the 
prosecutions  promoted  by  him. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  225 

offenders  were  fined  $300  each.  The  cases  were  ap- 
pealed to  the  District  of  Columbia  Court  of  Appeals, 
where  it  was  decided  that  the  licensing  laws  of  the 
District  (Act  of  1893)  ^^^  not  apply  to  the  Congres- 
sional restaurants  for  the  reason  that  they  were  under 
direct  control  of  Congressional  Committees  and  con- 
ducted for  the  use  and  convenience  of  members  of 
Congress.*  The  object  of  the  prosecutions,  however, 
was  attained.  So  much  uncomplimentary  discussion 
of  the  Congressional  drinking  "speakeasies"  resulted, 
that  Congress  enacted  a  law  prohibiting  the  sale  of 
liquor  within  the  Capitol  building  before  the  cases 
were  finally  decided.f 

The  ''moral  suasion"  phase  of  the  temperance  re- 
form has  been  well  represented  in  Congress  by  the 
Congressional  Temperance  Society,  afterwards  re- 
christened  the  Congressional  Total  Abstinence  Society. 
At  the  initiative  of  the  American  Temperance  Society, 
February  26,  1833,  was  generally  observed  through- 
out the  country  as  a  day  for  the  organization  of  tem- 
perance societies.  Through  the  efforts  of  General 
Lewas  Cass,  a  meeting  was  called  for  that  date  in  the 
Senate  Chambers^  at  which  was  formed  the  Congres- 
sional Temperance  Society,  with  General  Cass  as 
President  and  Walter  Lowrie,  Secretary  of  the  Senate, 

*  Page  vs.  Dist.  of  Columbia,  Appeal  Cases,  Dist.  of  Col. 
20  Tucker,  p.  469. 

t     32  Stat.  L.,  p.  1221. 

t  These  quarters  are  now  occupied  by  the  United  States 
Supreme  Court. 


226         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

as  Secretary.  This  society,  formed  on  a  basis  of  total 
abstinence  from  ardent  spirits.*  continued  until  1842, 
when,  through  the  efforts  of  Thomas  F.  Marshall,  of 
Kentucky ,f  it  was  reorganized  on  a  basis  of  total  absti- 


*  The  preamble  and  first  two  articles  of  the  Constitution 
read: 

"As  the  use  of  Ardent  Spirits  is  not  only  unnecessary, 
but  injurious,  as  it  tends  to  pauperism,  crime,  and  wretched- 
ness; to  hinder  the  efficacy  of  all  means  for  the  intellectual 
and  moral  benefit  of  society,  and  also  to  endanger  the  purity 
and  permanence  of  our  free  institutions;  and  as  one  of  the 
best  means  for  counteracting  its  deleterious  effects,  is  the  in- 
fluence of  UNITED  EXAMPLE,  Therefore,  we,  members  of 
Congress,  and  others,  recognizing  the  principle  of  abstinence 
from  the  use  of  Ardent  Spirits,  and  from  the  traffic  in  it,  as 
the  basis  of  our  Union,  do  hereby  agree  to  form  ourselves  in- 
to a  society,  and  for  this  purpose  adopt  the  following  Consti- 
tution, viz: 

"Article  i.  This  Society  shall  be  called  THE  AMER- 
ICAN CONGRESSIONAL  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY. 

'Article  2.  The  object  of  this  society  shall  be,  by  ex- 
ample, and  by  kind  moral  influence,  to  discountenance  the 
use  of  Ardent  Spirit,  and  the  traffic  in  it,  throughout  the  com- 
munity." 

t  "Tom"  Marshall,  after  years  of  dissipation,  had  re- 
cently become  a  pledged  total  abstainer  and  made  numerous 
temperance  speeches  in  Washington  and  vicinity  for  several 
years.  At  the  second  public  meeting  of  the  reorganized  so- 
ciety, Marshall  began  his  address  by  saying:  "Mr.  President: 
The  old  Congressional  Temperance  Society  has  died  of  in- 
temperance, holding  the  pledge  in  one  hand  and  a  champagne 
bottle  in  the  other." 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  227 

nence  from  all  forms  of  intoxicating  liquors  and  under 
the  name  of  the  Congressional  Total  Abstinence  So- 
ciety. George  N.  Briggs  of  Massachusetts  was  the 
first  president  of  the  reorganized  concern.  For  eighty 
years  the  Society  has  held  annual  meetings,  having  a 
membership  ranging  from  a  dozen  up  to  a  hundred.* 
By  virtue  of  the  eminent  men  connected  with  the  or- 
ganization, it  has  lent  dignity,  character  and  standing 
to  the  temperance  reform. 

Another  contribution  in  the  same  direction  was 
the  "Presidents'  Declaration,"  a  joint  appeal  urging 
the  entire  discontinuance  of  ardent  spirits  as  a  bev- 
erage, signed  by  twelve  presidents  of  the  United 
States.f 

The  paper,  drafted  by  Dr.  Justin  Edwards  in 
1834,  was  personally  presented  to  President  Madison 
for  his  signature  by  Edward  C.  Delavan.  Shortly 
afterwards  Andrew  Jackson  and  John  Quincy  Adams 

*  On  its  rolls  appear  such  names  as  Lewis  Cass,  Henry 
Wilson,  Millard  Fillmore,  Rufus  Choate,  Franklin  Pierce, 
Felix  Grundy,  Schuyler  Colfax,  William  Windom,  John  A. 
Logan,  Lot  M.  Morrill,  James  A.  Garfield,  James  Monroe, 
Frederick  T.  Frelinghuysen,  Henry  W.  Blair,  A.  H.  Colquitt, 
John  D.  Long,  Nelson  Dingley. 

t  The  following  are  the  signers,  James  Madison,  John 
Quincy  Adams,  Andrew  Jackson,  Martin  Van  Buren,  John 
Tyler,  James  K.  Polk,  Zachary  Taylor,  Millard  Fillmore, 
Franklin  Pierce,  James  Buchanan,  Abraham  Lincoln  and 
Andrew  Jackson.  President  William  Henry  Harrison  died 
before  there  wan  an  opportunity  for  presenting  the  paper  for 
his  signature. 


228    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

added  their  names.  In  commemoration  of  the  event, 
silver  medals  were  made  in  England  and  presented  to 
President  Adams  and  ex-Presidents  Madison  and  Polk. 
Delavan  during  his  lifetime  made  it  a  practice  to  ask 
each  incoming  President  for  his  signature.  The  text 
of  the  "Declaration"  read: 

"Being  satisfied  from  observation  and  experience,  as  well 
as  from  medical  testimony,  that  ardent  spirit,  as  a  drink,  is 
not  only  needless  but  hurtful;  and  that  the  entire  disuse  of  it 
would  tend  to  promote  the  health,  virtue  and  happiness  of  the 
community;  We  hereby  express  our  conviction,  that  should 
the  citizens  of  the  United  States,  and  especially  all  young 
men,  discontinue  entirely  the  use  of  it,  they  would  not  only 
promote  their  own  personal  benefit,  but  the  good  of  the  coun- 
try and  the  world." 

Aside  from  the  forensic  contests  directly  connect- 
ed with  the  Civil  War,  one  of  the  most  dramatic  debates 
that  ever  took  place  in  the  United  States  Senate,  and 
one  in  which  Congress  was  shown  at  its  best,  occurred 
on  December  19  and  20,  1849.  This  affair  was  pre- 
cipitated by  Senator  Walker  of  Wisconsin,  who  offered 
the  following  resolution : 

"Resolved,  That  the  Rev.  Theobald  Mathew  be  permitted 
to  sit  within  the  bar  of  the  Senate  during  the  period  of  his 
sojourn   in   Washington." 

Father  Mathew  was  then  fresh  from  his  triumphal 
tour  of  the  Eastern  states,  in  the  course  of  which  he 
had  administered  the  pledge  to  about  100,000  persons. 
Some  years  before,  however,  he  had  signed  an  address 
along  with  Daniel  0*Connell,  urging  American  Irish- 
men to  throw  their  influence  against  slavery.    'This  ad- 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  229 

dress  had  been  indiscreetly  published  by  New  York 
abolitionists  at  that  time  when  reason  was  generally 
ignored  in  the  heat  of  debate  over  this  question  of 
slavery.  The  publication  aroused  the  South,  and  some 
of  the  Southern  Senators  violently  attacked  Senator 
Walker's  resolution.  Never  before  had  the  privilege 
of  the  Senate  been  extended  to  any  civilian,  foreign  or 
domestic.  General  Lafayette  had  been  the  only  for- 
eigner ever  accorded  that  honor.  After  the  first  on- 
slaught of  the  Southerners,  Henry  Clay  slowly  arose 
and  said  :* 

"I  think,  sir,  that  the  resolution  is  an  homage  to  human- 
ity, to  philanthropy  and  to  virtue;  that  it  is  a  merited  tribute 
to  a  man  who  has  achieved  a  great  social  revolution — a  revolu- 
tion in  which  there  has  been  no  bloodshed,  no  desolation  in- 
flicted, no  tears  of  widows  and  orphans  extracted;  and  one  of 
the  greatest  which  has  been  achieved  by  any  of  the  bene- 
factors of  mankind." 

Said  Senator  William  H.  Seward: 

"This  Capitol,  its  hall,  its  chambers,  and  its  grounds,  are 
filled  with  statuary,  memorials  of  the  illustrious  benefactors 
of  mankind,  of  other  nations  as  well  as  our  own;  and  these 
memorials  are  looked  upon  with  pleasure  and  satisfaction 
by  all  the  living.  But  there  is  a  painful  reflection  that  occurs 
to  us  when  we  raise  these  monuments  to  the  dead.  They  can 
convey  no  encouragement  to  the  benefactor  in  the  prosecu- 
tion of  his  philanthropic  enterprises.  They  convey  to  him  no 
sympathy  in  the  sufferings  which  he  endures.  The  resolution 
before  the  Senate  presents  a  very  different  occasion — an  oc- 
casion in  which  we  can  without  danger  of  error,  recognize 
a  public  benefactor  of  mankind;  and  in  which  the  homage 

*     Cong.  Globe,  Vol.  XXI,  Part  I,  p.  51- 


230    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

which  is  offered  is  unalloyed  by  the  painful  reflection   that 

marble  cannot  feel  and  cannot  hear I  look  upon  him 

as    entitled   to   approbation    and   gratitude    of   the    American 
Nation." 

General  Lewis  Cass  said  : 

"This  is  but  a  complimentary  notice  to  a  distinguished 
man  just  arrived  among  us,  and  well  does  he  merit  it.  He  is 
a  stranger  to  us  personally,  but  he  has  won  a  world-wide 
renown.  He  comes  among  us  on  a  mission  of  benevolence, 
not  unlike  Howard,  whose  name  and  deeds  rank  high  in  the 
annals  of  philanthropy,  and  who  sought  to  carry  hope  and 
comfort  into  the  darkest  cells,  and  to  alleviate  the  moral  and 
physical  condition  of  their  unhappy  tenants.  He  comes  to 
break  the  bonds  of  the  captive,  and  to  set  the  prisoner  free, 
to  redeem  the  lost,  to  confirm  the  wavering,  and  to  aid  in 
saving  all  from  the  temptation,  and  dangers  of  intemperance. 
It  is  a  noble  mission,  and  nobly  is  he  fulfilling  it.  I  need 
not  stop  to  recount  the  evils  which  the  great  enemy  he  is 
contending  with  has  inflicted  upon  the  world — evils  which  are 
the  source  of  a  large  portion  of  the  vice  and  misery  that 
human  nature  has  to  encounter.  But  the  inundation  is  stayed. 
Higher  motives,  nobler  aspirations,  the  influence  of  religion 
and  the  hopes  of  life  are  coming  to  the  rescue,  and  are 
doing  their  part  in  this  great  work  of  reformation.  You  grant 
a  seat  here  to  the  successful  warrior  returning  from  the  con- 
quests of  war.  Let  us  not  refuse  it  to  a  better  warrior — who 
comes  from  the  conquests  of  peace;  from  victories  achieved 
without  the  loss  of  blood  or  life,  and  whose  trophies  are 
equally  dear  to  the  patriot  and  the  Christian."* 

The  climax  of  the  debate  came  when  General 
Sam  Houston  of  Texas,  a  Southerner  to  the  core,  spoke 
in  favor  of  the  resolution.    He  said: 

*    Ibid,  p.  53.  a 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  231 

*'I  cannot  view  this  resolution  as  some  honorable  gentle- 
men do;  I  cannot  regard  it,  sir,  as  any  test  of  merit  beyond 
what  the  great  Apostle  of  Temperance  has  manifested  to  the 
world  by  his  advent  to  this  country.  Father  Mathew  goes 
not  with  a  torch  of  discord,  but  with  a  bond  of  peace,  refor- 
mation and  redemption  to  an  unfortunate  class  in  the  com- 
munity. I,  sir,  am  a  disciple;  I  need  the  discipline  of  refor- 
mation, and  I  embrace  it;  and  would  that  I  could  enforce  the 
example  upon  every  American  heart  that  influences  or  is  in- 
fluenced by  filial  affection,  conjugal  love,  or  parental  tender- 
ness. Yes,  sir,  there  is  love,  purity  and  fidelity  inscribed  upon 
the  banner  which  he  bears.  It  has  nothing  to  do  with  aboli- 
tion or  with  nullification,  sir.  Away  with  your  paltry  ob- 
jections to  men  who  come  bearing  the  binnacle  above  turbid 
waters,  which  unfortunately  roll  at  the  foot  of  this  mighty 
Republic.  I  bid  him  welcome.  It  has  nothing  to  do,  in  m; 
opinion  with  all  the  noise  of  political  strife,  and  I  am  not 
prepared  to  combine  it  with  the  tariff,  nullification,  abolition 
or  anything  of  that  kind,  or  manufacture  in  any  shape,  unless 
it  is  the  manufacture  of  intemperate  men  into  sober,  respecta- 
ble citizens." 

To  the  credit  of  the  Senate,  the  resolution,  the 
debate  over  which  extended  into  two  days,  was  carried 
by  a  vote  of  33  to  18. 

Prior  to  the  Civil  War  Congress  had  little  to  do 
with  serious  legislation  regarding  the  drink  traffic. 
The  temperance  movement  of  the  period,  culminating 
in  the  widespread  demand  for  Prohibition,  looked 
merely  to  enactments  by  the  state  legislatures  of  prohi- 
bition laws  under  the  police  powers  reserved  to  the 
states  by  the  Federal  Constitution.  Congress,  there- 
fore, considered  the  liquor  traffic  merely  as  it  was  in- 
volved with  the  customs,  internal  revenue,  or  matters 


232         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

of  rations  for  the  army  and  navy.  It  was  not  until 
twelve  years  after  the  War  that  Congress  began  prob- 
ing among  the  vitals  of  the  traffic  in  intoxicants.  This 
movement  first  took  the  form  of  a  demand  for  a  *'Com- 
mission  of  Inquiry"  to  investigate  the  effects  of  prohi- 
bition in  the  states  where  this  policy  had  been  adopted. 
The  first  step  taken  was  on  February  6,  1872,  when  a 
memorial  was  presented  to  Congress  asking  the  ap- 
pointment of  a  Commission  of  five  or  more  members 
"Whose  duty  shall  be  to  investigate  the  subject  of 
prohibitory  legislation  and  its  effects  upon  intemper- 
ance during  the  period,  over  twenty  years,  covered  by 
such  legislation  in  Maine,  Massachusetts,  and  other 
states  of  the  Union"  and  "also  to  consider  and  recom- 
mend what  additional  legislation,  if  any,  would  be  ben- 
eficial on  the  part  of  the  national  government  for  the 
prohibition,  within  its  jurisdiction,  of  the  manufacture, 
importation  and  sale  of  all  intoxicating  liquors  to  be 
used  as  a  beverage."* 

For  twenty  years  the  people  clamored  for  this 
legislation.  Six  times  the  bill  passed  the  Senate,  only 
to  be  defeated  in  the  House.  While  this  agitation  did 
not  result  in  the  Commission  of  Inquiry  desired,  it  did 
result  in  the  establishment  by  the  House  of  Represen- 
tatives of  a  "Select  Committee  on  the  Alcoholic  Liquor 
Traffic."  This  Committee,  first  established  by  the 
Forty-sixth  Congress,  has  been  continued  to  the  pres- 
ent time.    A  movement  was  organized  by  representa- 

*     Misc.  Doc.  No.  60,  42d  Cong.,  2d  Session. 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  233 

tives  of  the  United  States  Brewers'  Association  in  the 
Forty-eighth  Congress  to  abolish  this  Committee. 
While  the  attempt  failed,  the  same  result,  for  the  time 
being,  was  effected.  Speaker  John  G.  Carlisle  "pack- 
ed" the  Committee.  Of  the  nine  members  appointed, 
seven  were  opposed  to  having  any  such  committee  at 
all.  *  Since  that  time  this  Committee  has  often  been 
used  merely  as  a  morgue  in  which  to  bury  temperance 
proposals.  At  other  times,  however,  especially  dur- 
ing the  time  of  Speaker  Reed,  this  Committee  has  been 
often  friendly  to  the  temperance  cause  and  has  been 
the  medium  for  accomplishing  some  useful  legislation. 
Contemporary  with  this  agitation  for  a  Congress- 

*  Dorchester,  Liquor  Problem,  p.  700,  quotes  the  follow- 
ing from  the  Washington  Sentinel,  edited  by  the  attorney  for 
the  United  States  Brewers'  Association,  regarding  this  gro- 
tesque farce: 

"There  are  few  who  have  any  idea  of  the  anxieties  and 
labors  necessary  to  prevent  the  prohibitionists  from  storm- 
ing the  Capitol.  Had  not  Speaker  Carlisle,  and,  we  dare  say, 
at  our  urgent  request,  paid  some  attention  to  the  doings  of 
the  House  Liquor  Traffic  Committee,  there  is  no  doubt  but 
that  the  Prohibitionists  would  have  been  successful.  Though 
he  had  composed  the  committee  of  seven  Democrats  and 
only  four  Republicans  (one  of  the  latter  a  German-American) 
yet  old  Price  of  Wisconsin,  would  have  carried  the  day,  be- 
cause four  of  the  Democrats  did  not  attend  the  meetings  of 
the  committee,  and  one  of  the  other  Democrats  voted  with 
the  prohibitionists.  Fortunately  the  absenting  members  final- 
ly came  in,  and  the  prohibitionists  were  once  more  defeated. 
Speaker  Carlisle  deserves  the  thanks  of  the  friends  of  person- 
al liberty  throughout  the  country." 


234    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

ional  Commission  of  Inquiry,  was  a  demand  for  the  sub- 
mission to  the  people,  by  Congress,  of  an  amendment 
to  the  Federal  Constitution,  forever  prohibiting  the 
traffic  in  intoxicating  liquors  for  beverage  purposes. 
This  proposal  was  promoted  chiefly  by  United  States 
Senator  Henry  W.  Blair,  who  began  operations  by 
introducing  into  the  House  of  Representatives,  De- 
cember 12,  1876,  a  bill  to  submit  such  an  amendment 
to  a  vote  of  the  people.  The  bill  provided  that  such 
prohibition  should  begin  ten  years  after  the  proposed 
amendment  *  had  been  ratified  by  three-fourths  of  the 
states.    Senator  Preston  B.  Plumb  introduced  a  similar 

*     The  text  of  this  proposal  was  as  follows: 

"Resolved  by  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives 
of  the  United  States  of  America,  in  Congress  assembled 
(two-thirds  of  each  House  concurring  therein),  that  the  fol- 
lowing amendment  to  the  Constitution  be,  and  hereby  is,  pro- 
posed to  the  States,  to  become  valid  when  ratified  by  the 
Legislatures  of  three-fourths  of  the  several"  states,  as  pro- 
vided in  the  Constitution: 

"Section  i.  From  and  after  the  year  of  our  Lord  19QO  the 
manufacture  and  sale  of  distilled  alcoholic  intoxicating  liquors 
or  alcoholic  liquors  any  part  of  which  is  obtained  by  distilla- 
tion or  process  equivalent  thereto,  or  any  intoxicating  liquors 
mixed  or  adulterated  with  ardent  spirits,  or  any  poison  what- 
ever, except  for  use  in  the  arts,  shall  cease;  and  the  importa- 
tion of  such  liquors  from  foreign  states  and  countries  to  the 
United  States  and  Territories,  and  the  exportation  of  such  liq- 
uors from  and  the  transportation  thereof  within  and  through 
any  part  of  this  country  except  for  the  use  and  purpose  afore- 
said, shall  be,  and  hereby  is,  forever  thereafter  prohibited. 

"Section  2.     Nothing  in  this  article  shall  be  construed  to 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  235 

measure  into  the  Senate  of  the  Forty-sixth  Congress. 
A  third  proposal  was  introduced  into  the  Senate  by 
Mr.  Blair,  then  a  Senator,  on  December  12,  1887.  The 
first  and  last  of  these  proposals  were  favorably  report- 
ed to  the  Senate  by  the  Committee  on  Education  and 
Labor,  but  no  vote  was  ever  reached.  A  similar  movement, 
one  to  submit  the  question  of  Prohibition  to  the  peo- 
ple of  the  territories,  met  with  defeat  during  the  eight- 
ies. All  of  these  proposals  were  savagely  fought  by 
the  United  States  Brewers'  Association,  which,  since 

waive  or  abridge  any  existing  power  of  Congress,  nor  the 
right,  which  is  hereby  recognized,  of  the  people  of  any  State 
or  Territory  to  enact  laws  to  prevent  the  increase  and  for  the 
suppression  or  regulation  of  the  manufacture,  sale  and  use 
of  liquors,  and  the  ingredients  thereof,  any  part  of  which  is 
alcoholic,  intoxicating  or  poisonous,  within  its  own  limits, 
and  for  the  exclusion  of  such  liquors  and  ingredients  there- 
from at  any  time,  as  well  before  as  after  the  close  of  the  year 
of  our  Lord  1900;  but  until  then,  and  until  ten  years  after  the 
ratification  hereof,  as  provided  in  the  next  section,  no  State 
or  Territory  shall  interfere  with  the  transportation  of  said 
liquors  or  ingredients,  in  packages  safely  secured,  over  the 
usual  lines  of  traffic  to  other  States  and  Territories  in  the 
manufacture,  sale  and  use  thereof  for  other  purposes  and  use 
than  those  excepted  in  the  first  section  shall  be  lawful;  Pro- 
vided, That  the  true  destination  of  such  packages  be  plainly 
marked  thereon. 

"Section  3.  Should  this  article  not  be  ratified  by  three- 
fourths  of  the  States  on  or  before  the  last  day  of  December, 
1890,  then  the  first  section  hereof  shall  take  efifect  and  be  in 
force  at  the  expiration  of  ten  years  from  such  ratification;  and 
the  assent  of  any  state  to  this  Article  shall  not  be  rescinded 
nor  reversed." 


236    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

its  organization  in  i860,  has  maintained  a  lobby  in 
Washington  and  has  exercised  a  powerful  influence 
over  legislative  proposals  affecting  its  interests.  For 
ten  years  Senator  Blair  led  this  contest  for  National 
Prohibition  against  this  influence.  He  led  it  with  such 
vigor  and  persistency  that  his  political  downfall  re- 
sulted. 

For  thirty  years  after  its  organization,  the  United 
States  Brewers'  Association  had  things  practically  its 
own  way  in  Washington.  Temperance  representa- 
tions were  made  through  and  by  the  National  Tem- 
perance Society  to  a  considerable  extent.  Represen- 
tatives of  this  body  frequently  were  heard  before  Com- 
mittees, but  its  headquarters  were  in  New  York  City, 
and  no  one  was  on  the  ground  to  "watch"  and  con- 
tinuously care  for  Temperance  interests.  Further- 
more, many  of  the  states,  during  the  eighties,  were 
engaged  in  hand  to  hand  contests  of  their  own  for  con- 
stitutional prohibition.  The  high  license  movement 
had  its  beginnings  in  this  period,  the  original  "Slo- 
cumb  law"  having  been  adopted  in  Nebraska  in  1881. 
Much  earnest  effort  was  expended  in  the  promotion  of 
this  idea.  It  was  also  during  this  period,  beginning 
practically  in  1884,  that  much  of  the  temperance  propa- 
ganda was  directed  toward  building  up  the  Prohibi- 
tion party.  Under  these  circumstances,  it  is  quite  nat- 
ural that  the  thirty  year  period  ending  with  1890,  is 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  237 

practically  barren  *  of  all  Congressional  legislation  in 
the  interest  of  the  temperance  reform. 

The  "Original  Package"  decision  had  the  result 
of  focusing  the  attention  of  the  people  upon  Congress, 
and  led  to  better  things.  Early  in  1890,  the  United 
States  Supreme  Court  (Leisy  vs.  Hardin)  decided  that 
"the  state  had  no  power,  without  Congressional  per- 
mission to  do  so,  to  interfere  by  seizure,  or  by  any 
other  action,  in  the  prohibition  or  importation  and  sale 
by  a  foreign  or  non-resident  importer  of  liquors  in  un- 
broken original  packages."  Under  color  of  this  de- 
cision, the  liquor  dealers  everywhere  began  opening 
"original  package"  shops,  defying  not  only  state  and 
local  prohibition  laws  but  license  laws  as  well.  The 
rumsellers  celebrated  their  victory  by  opening  these 
shops  in  the  most  offensive  places  and  in  the  most 
obnoxious  manner.  Joints  were  opened  near  schools 
and  churches,  and  in  choice  resident  districts  of  many 
cities.  A  wave  of  indignation  spread  over  the  country 
of  such  intensity  that  rioting  occurred  in  various 
places.  The  only  remedy  lay  in  an  Act  of  Congress. 
To  remedy  this  situation,  the  "Wilson  Law"  was  hur- 
riedly passed  (Approved  August  8,  1890),  intended  to 
make  all  intoxicating  liquors  subject  to  the  laws  of  the 


*  An  exception  is  the  Act  of  1886  providing  scientific 
temperance  instruction  in  the  District  of  Columbia,  the  Ter- 
ritories, the  Military  and  Naval  Academies,  etc. 


27,^         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

state  into  which  they  were  sent.*  This  law  was,  how- 
ever, weakened  by  the  Supreme  Court  in  a  subsequent 
case,t  in  which  it  was  decided  that,  while  the  effect 
of  the  law  was  to  remove  the  Federal  protection  from 
the  consignee  in  selling  in  defiance  of  state  law,  yet  the 
words  of  the  Act  "arrival  in  such  state"  contemplated 
their  delivery  to  the  consignee  before  state  jurisdiction 
would  attach 4 

The  controversy  over  this  "Original  Package"  law 
and  the  prompt  passage  of  the  Wilson  act  led  the  peo- 
ple to  look  to  Congress  for  further  relief.  Early  in 
the  "nineties,"  the  Reform  Bureau  (now  International 
Reform  Bureau)  was  established  in  Washington  as  a 
"Christian  lobby,"  by  Dr.  Wilbur  F.  Crafts.  The  pio- 
neer work  of  Dr.  Crafts  was  followed  up  by  the  estab- 

*     The  text  of  this  law  reads: 

'That  all  fermented,  distilled  or  other  intoxicating  liq- 
uors or  liquids  transported  into  any  State  or  Territory  or  re- 
maining therein  for  use,  consumption,  sale  or  storage  therein, 
shall  upon  arrival  in  such  State  or  Territory  be  subject  to  the 
operation  and  effect  of  the  laws  of  such  State  or  Territory 
enacted  in  the  exercise  of  its  police  powers,  to  the  same  ex- 
tent and  in  the  same  manner  as  though  such  liquids  or  liq- 
uors had  been  produced  in  such  State  or  Territory,  and  Shall 
not  be  exempt  therefrom  by  reason  of  being  introduced  there- 
in in  original  packages  or  otherwise." 

t     Rhodes  vs.  Iowa,  170  U.  S.,  412. 

X  For  several  years  Congress  has  been  importuned  to 
remove  this  obstacle  to  the  full  exercise  of  the  police  powers 
of  the  states,  but,  so  far,  the  liquor  dealers  have  been  able  to 
prevent  such  action.  ,, 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  239 

lishment  of  the  Legislative  Department  of  the  Wo- 
man's Christian  Temperance  Union,  and  also  by  the 
Department  of  the  American  Anti-Saloon  League,  and 
the  work  reduced  to  systematic  representations.  The 
lobby  of  the  United  States  Brewers'  Association  was 
thus  met  on  its  own  grounds.  Since  this  time  there 
has  been  a  hand  to  hand  contest  in  Washington  be- 
tween these  two  forces,  the  prohibitionists,  step  by 
step,  gaining  the  ascendancy.  Since  the  establishment 
of  these  temperance  representatives  in  Washington 
they  h^ve  been  able  to  defeat  practically  every  new 
move  of  importance  on  the  part  of  the  liquor  interests  * 
and  have  secured  much  positive  legislation  of  advan- 
tage to  the  prohibition  cause.  The  laws  against  selling 
liquor  to  Indians  have  been  three  times  revised  and 
perfected,  f  The  beer  saloon  has  been  driven  out  of 
the  Army,  after  a  furious  struggle,  and  large  appro- 
priations have  been  made  to  provide  gymnasiums,  bet- 
ter rations,  and  other  things  to  take  the  place  of  items 
alleged  to  have  been  formerly  supplied  through  the 
profits  of  beer  selling.    Appropriations  for  the  mainte- 

*  An  important  exception  was  the  overthrow  of  pro- 
hibition for  Alaska  in  1899.  This  movement,  however,  was 
not  the  result  of  the  work  of  the  liquor  interests.  John  G. 
Brady,  then  Governor  of  Alaska,  who  had  spent  most  of  his 
life  in  that  country  as  a  missionary,  came  to  Washington  and 
personally  pleaded  for  high  license  on  the  ground  that  the 
whisky  peddlers  would  sell  anyhow  and  the  territory  needed 
the  revenue. 

t  Acts  approved  July  23,  1892,  March  i,  1895  and  Janu- 
ary 30,  1897. 


240  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

nance  of  soldiers'  homes  are  now  made  contingent 
upon  the  prohibition  of  liquor  selling  therein.  Twice 
the  excise  laws  of  the  District  of  Columbia  have  been 
revised  and  several  times  amended  in  the  interest  of 
the  prohibitionists.  What  is  known  as  the  "New  Heb- 
rides bill"*  (Approved  February  14,  1902)  was  passed 
to  prohibit  Americans  from  selling  intoxicants,  opium 
and   fire   arms  to   the   unprotected   natives   of   Pacific 


*     The  text  of  this  law  (32  Stat.  L.  pt.  i,  p.  33)  reads: 

"That  any  person  subject  to  the  authority  of  the  United 
States  who  shall  give,  sell,  or  otherwise  supply  any  arms, 
ammunition,  explosive  substances,  intoxicating  liquor,  or 
opium  to  any  aboriginal  native  of  any  of  the  Pacific  Islands 
lying  within  the  twentieth  parallel  of  north  latitude  and  the 
fortieth  parallel  of  south  latitude  and  the  one  hundred  and 
twentieth  meridian  of  longitude  west  and  one  hundred  and 
twentieth  meridian  east  of  Greenwich,  not  being  in  the  pos- 
session or  under  the  protection  of  any  civilized  power,  shall 
be  punishable  by  imprisonment  not  exceeding  three  months, 
with  or  without  hard  labor,  or  a  fine  not  exceeding  fifty  dol- 
lars or  both.  And  in  addition  to  such  punishment  all  articles 
of  a  similar  nature  to  those  in  respect  to  which  an  offense  has 
been  committed  found  in  the  possession  of  the  offender  may 
be  declared  forfeited. 

"Sec.  2.  That  if  it  shall  appear  to  the  court  that  such 
opium,  wine,  or  spirits  have  been  given  bona  fide  for  medical 
purposes  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the  court  to  dismiss  the  charge. 

"Sec.  3.  That  all  offenses  against  this  act  committed  on 
any  of  said  islands  or  on  the  waters,  rocks,  or  keys  adjacent 
thereto  shall  be  deemed  committed  on  the  high  seas  on  board 
a  merchant  ship  or  vessel  belonging  to  the  United  States,  and 
the  courts  of  the  United  States  shall  have  jurisdiction  ac- 
cordingly." 0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  241 

Islands.  In  1895  Congress  directed  the  Bureau  of 
Labor  to  investigate  the  economic  aspects  of  the  liquor 
problem.  The  published  results  of  these  investiga- 
tions, made  under  the  direction  of  Carroll  D.  Wright, 
have  provided  much  "ammunition"  for  the  prohibition- 
ists ever  since.  The  prohibitionists  won  another  de- 
cided victory  in  the  "Act  to  regulate  the  immigration 
of  aliens  into  the  United  States,"  approved  March  3, 
1903.  Section  30  of  the  Act  *  governing  the  letting  of 
eating  privileges  at  immigrant  stations,  provided  "that 
no  intoxicating  liquors  shall  be  sold  in  any  such  im- 
migrant station."  It  was  during  the  consideration  of 
this  bill  that  the  scandal  over  the  criminal  prosecu- 
tions of  the  unlicensed  drink  sellers  in  the  basement 
of  the  Capitol  was  at  its  height.  To  end  the  matter,  a 
clause  was  inserted  in  this  immigration  act  providing 
that  "no  intoxicating  liquors  of  any  character  shall  be 
sold  within  the  limits  of  the  Capitol  building  of  the 
United  States."  The  constitutional  validity  of  such  a 
clause  in  an  act  to  "regulate  immigration"  is  open  to 
grave  question,  but  Congress  is  not  apt  to  contest  its 
own  enactment. 

It  was  during  this  period  that  the  United  States 
took  her  place  among  the  civilized  nations  of  the  earth 
in  protecting  the  natives  of  the  Congo  Free  State  from 
the  whisky  peddler.  The  "Brussels  Conference,"  held 
in  1890,  decided  to  establish  a  zone  around  the  district 
in  which  the  sale  of  distilled  spirits  should  be  prohib- 


32  Stat.   L.,  p.   1220. 


242  THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

ited.  Within  two  years  seventeen  leading  nations  of 
the  earth  had  ratified  this  convention,  including  Per- 
sia and  Turkey.  It  was  not  until  December  14,  1899, 
that  the  United  States  became  a  party  to  this  agree- 
ment for  the  "Zone  de  prohibition."  A  supplemental 
agreement  of  the  second  Conference,  that  of  1899,  was 
also  ratified.  It  was  in  pursuance  of  this  new  policy 
of  the  Government,  that,  on  January  4,  1901,  Henry 
Cabot  Lodge  introduced  into  the  Senate  the  following 
resolution,  which  was  adopted : 

"RESOLVED.  That  in  the  opinion  of  this  body  the 
time  has  come  when  the  principle,  twice  affirmed  in  inter- 
national treaties  for  Central  Africa,  that  native  races  should 
be  protected  against  the  destructive  traffic  in  intoxicants, 
should  be  extended  to  all  uncivilized  peoples  by  the  enactment 
of  such  laws  and  the  making  of  such  treaties  as  will  effectually 
prohibit  the  sale  by  the  signatory  powers  to  aboriginal  tribes 
and  uncivilized  races  of  opium  and  intoxicating  beverages." 

Congress,  like  all  representative  bodies,  is  never 
up  to  the  millennium  standard.  It  contains  represen- 
tatives of  the  worst  as  well  as  the  best  elements  of 
society.  In  the  passage  of  a  bill,  the  vote  of  the  one 
counts  as  much  as  that  of  the  other.  Congress  repre- 
sents approximately  the  average  public  sentiment  on 
any  reform.  But  the  burden  is  on  the  reformer  to  get 
even  this  average  sentiment  expressed  in  legislation. 
It  is  for  him  to  assume  the  aggressive.  Vested  inter- 
ests in  iniquity  are  on  the  defensive  and  have  the  ad- 
vantage of  being  already  intrenched  in  legislation.  But 
the  standard  of  Congress  is  becoming  higher  with  each 
succeeding  election.    The  unfit  are  one  by  one  left  upon 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  243 

the  scrap  heap.  There  is  less  incentive  for  a  Congress- 
man to  become  the  puppet  of  the  liquor  interests  than 
formerly,  and  there  is  correspondingly  greater  inclina- 
tion to  relieve  the  people  of  the  burdens  of  the  licensed 
liquor  traffic.  Under  the  present  system  of  representa- 
tion there  are  many  ways  for  intrenched  wrong 
temporarily  to  hold  its  position  by  bullying,  bribing, 
trickery  and  various  forms  of  chicanery.  The  ultimate 
triumph  of  right  may  thus  be  deferred,  betrayed,  or 
compromised,  but  never  finally  defeated. 


244 


THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


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AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  245 


t^  M  t>.  ?»?  Ov\o  vo  CONVO  0»O0\C«vo  N  OnOV«)VO  lO 

t^oo 06  OMXJ 0600060606  d  6  w  N  pi  N  N  -t  -t  ^  IT) 


w  ro"   P4  P0-*«om»O  liivo  vo  t^  tvVO  vo  VO  \0  txOO  00  O  O   O  O  " 


000000000000000000000 


NONOOOOMt-4 


rotoii  ih00O<^O\>-'t}-NO\  fCOO  1-1   000  i/^0\voi-i   c^   Ovm 

CS  t^  O  'COO  CI   f0>0  -t  m  t^OO  ^xf«-Jt^.u^o^^^  in  rt-  <S0O  N  tv; 

00  00  fO  0\  N  C<   'too  O  O  *^00  *^  O   N  vo  10  O   Tt-  POvo  0\  CO  w . 

TtfT^  vodip^M^ioN^pr'Tfoio^roitCtCrfi/id^i-ri-rvo 

TfwTl-  tvOtOOONVOOO^tVOVO   •^VO    0\  IN    N    M   t^vc   txOO   O 

i-TTtfT  vomioj-n'^  i-Too  v3  pT  po  1000  10  10  w*"  (>  i-T  i-Too"  ■*  oT 

l^  0\  O  Ov  N  1000  00  00  00  00  Ov  C^   O  re  N  10  o^00  ^  N  tx  ON  tv 

N  NfOPOPOPOrocOfOfO'*"^  "^VO  vo  vo  vo  txOO  00  00  o» 


ro  0\  0> ««  •*  >r>vo  0>  "100  VO  t^vo  N  lOt^^s^NP^  ir>»oO\0  O  t>.00  Ov  co  N  ►-<  Ov 
TtOVOVOOO'O't'^O  rOiON  wvovo  lOOO  VO  moO  VOVOOO  ■<t«  coiow  MVOm 
00O'O'J-«OM*N'-'P^'^'-i'-iO\NOiH   COVO  fOTfi-i   >H   o\PoinO  Tj-  cr>00  ■*  VO 

o  fovo  pT  o  fo  f^  o  On  povoo6"oo  «n  m  povo  vo  0\  to  o  pT  oI  oIvo  pT  0\  pT  m  pT  ca 

w  VO  Tl-  tx  t^  P»  >OVO  0000inr0O»O\P)iocoNVOOM>-it^t^MOtxl^Ov<^P< 
CO  to  PO  fO  l^vo  M  O  PI  -^t^i-c  P<VOIOO\POO\  OVVO  PJmpotJ-OmmOvtI-wOi 
rovo  i-rNtCcoOvrO"t^^wOO(>  -^00  '^  tC  -^  r?  -fvo  m"  o  VO  fO  t^vo  O  to 
P)  POO^  OV'-'  toO\0\0\0  Tt-t^O  0\0\0  O  M  Tj->H  r)-P)  ioO\Ov*i-'VO00  vo 
n  i-ii-iwiH>-ip<MpjcoP»P)P0P0P0P0TtTl-ioiOto  lOVO  t^  t>.  t^OO 


i>>  o  Ti-  •-<  M-vo  tN  txvo  Poo\t-<Tj-wt>.p)P)  Ti-oo  o  po 

_^        _ VO   O  P4   PO  w   P)  t>«00   OMHt^P)OM^P»i-(t^"w'-0\ 

■^  tovo  O^  lOVO  VO  OjOO  OOpoOv  OtooOtxPOt^Ov  toOO  >->  O  vo  lo  Os  tx  ^x  lOOO  t^  Ov 

0\  O  0\  ■^vo  fO  M  ■^  On  to  covo  po  lo  M  pj"  rvoo  M  Ki  to  povo  00  CO  p)  rC  "I  icvo  -^  rt-  m  m 

Tl-ocO'-ivoOv<N'-'t>.Ovr^rtPO  N  POOO  •^vo  Ovvo  t^vo  tN  Ov  ■*v£>  t^oo  O  VO  N  PO  rt"  ■* 

tN  t>.  POOO^vo  00  '^  to  ■*  o  00  POOv  P^OOvoOOTl-o^lHOOP^coO•-ltotxTt0^lOPOco►-lO^ 

p<p|pjpjp)Pitopo  Tfvo  -^vo  o  pT  tovooo  o  dl  o  M  pT  -^oo"  rf  to  to  o  «  to  pf  VO  -^od 

M  iHi-ii-ii-ip)i-iMMMMP4P|MpqP)P<P|cOPOP0M 


rtPOMVO  J^P«VO  O  tOP)00  i-i  O  O\O00  OOO  m  iot^wVO  r^w  O\rfT}-P»00  P^ 
00  tx  to  owe  OOOVOOOOO  OVOOO  POOviOO\'-i  ■*(-»  O\00  tN.0000  O  H  OMOtoMi 
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VO  POVO  O  O  00  1^00  lOTl-OvvoM  pOtJ-PJOO  N  POt^P)  O  totoN  '-'  P)  I^.'I-ih  P) 
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ooooooooooooooooooooooooQOoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooQoo 


246 


THE  FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 


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'^;3i o.^.N«-! 


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g      j'^-*"*fOPON»OMrorO  rovo  •*>')•*  tn^  ^O  t^ 

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tv  tx^O  Tf  »o  0\  Tj-\0  txro«  u-ji-i  t^xnin  f^  r^ 
TtoO  ro  Tj-  xnoo  0;M2  ►-  tx  o\00  (M  t^  tJ-  r^  "^  N^  1 
ts  T?  rCoO  pf  pT  o"vc  0^0  divo  ro  T?  rf  O  \0  I 
OMN>HMMi->N0|<<or<0  >0\0  VO  VO  00   O   O   I 


0\  (V)  w  >A)\0  \0  00  M  00  ^  -^vo  O  »r>  o  "-I  "^00  vO  vo 
(H  f^  t^  rooO  vOOOOOTl-txiOwi-iN'^'*'^"^ 
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oov-"  focoioo  oojCo  ^00  00  \o  i-T  cd  pT  ■*  o' 

(TJ  O  •*  N  rovo  TtOOOOOvovo  O  r^0<  N  '-'  fOfO-t 
0<    fO  •<}•  O    O    ^VO   IOCO<*50    fOfOPOlOTj-fO  t^VO    ro 

»v  ol  "ifvo  CO  »^  c^  ■^vo  N  <^  N  o  c^oo  o  n  oo  n  -' 

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rovo  MOOOO   •*'*0   Tj-Tfio  OvOO  M   tv  N  00  ^  "^ 

fo  T? VO  N  ro  >H  11 00  o  00  VO  cooo  i-<"  c^  «ooo  M  d\ 

00  VO  toOO  VO  O  t^VO  VO  00  OiVO  fO  M  1000  r^  N  tN. 
O  CS^vo  00  00  f^N^'^'^CJvro'^NrOO  •*^1<^ 
»00  w  "  O  odoO  O  VO  oloo  ^00  ro  lOVO  t^  N  I- 
;NPjro<SNMCONP<NNTfcOTj-»OTf"^  v^^ 


in  O  ro  »  ro  inOO  ro  N   ^00  >->  rj-  ts.  cji  ro^  '^vo  tJ- 

VO  Tj-toovo  Tj-n-ov  TtvO  ro  ■*  inOO  TfoO  ^  '-'  rooo 

«2      I  loOO  •^  '^  O  tv.  Oj  N  Tj-OO  ro  w  0\  rovo  to  ■*  ro  O  vo 

"C  1  tC  "  «>^  "  >"  >rt  ^  ■^  rovo  >nvo  d\  tC  dv  i-T -^  ol  O  00 
.3  u>000'*toNNO\ro"Mr)NVOOOvo  mOO  (x  ro  rrj 
"      '  M   ro  t^  i^jvo  »x  O  IT)  Tf  ro  ■*  t^vo   O  00  00   <^  '^  ►-   "^ 

i-T  tC  "  o  00  oroMrCtCrotCtCwotCqioi-rf^ 

Ot  Ot  O  0\  rx  N.  txoO  00OvOO>HNP*N'*t^<viro 


►M  N  ro  Tt  u>VO  t^oO  0\  O  w  N  ro  ■*  irjvo  t^OO  0\  o 
0>0>0>OiOvOiOvOvO\OOOOOOOC>Oo,- 
000000000000000000  O\0\0\0v0v0v0\0s0*0vc' 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 


247 


NUMBER      OF     SPECIAL     TAXPAYERS     AS     RETAIL      LIQUOR 

DEALERS  AND  RETAIL  DEALERS  IN  MALT  LIQUOR 

IN     THE     UNITED     STATES     SINCE     1876. 


Year-ending  June  30. 


Special  Taxpayers. 


R.  L.  D. 


R.  D.  M.  L. 


Total 


1877 
1878 
1879 
1880 
1881 
1882 
J  883 
1884 
1885 
1886 
1887 
1888 
1889 
1890 
1891 
1892 
1893 
1894 
189s 
1896 
1897 
1898 
1899 
1900 
1901 
1902 
1903 
1904 
1 90s 
1906 
1907 
1908 
1909 
1910 


156,634 
157,345 
155,850 
163,525 
170,640 
168,770 
187,871 
180,068 
182,318 
190,121 
188,107 
168,587 
188,675 
189,002 
230,408 
215,434 
219,863 
215,419 
208,388 
204,294 
194,942 
195.964 
199,729 
207,525 
213,416 
220,636 

230,056 
241,239 
243,400 
236,448 
230,512 
223,504 
217,813 


7,964 

9,499 

10,636 

11,610 

8,536 

8,006 

7,998 

8,220 

8,676 

8,409 

8,685 

8,161 

7,899 

7,798 

10,389 

10,031 

10,073 

12,618 

10,486 

12,064 

11,076 

12,071 

12,327 

12,716 

13,131 

13,754 

14,468 

13,826 

14,976 

17,094 

18,266 

20,434 

21,681 

19,655 


164,598 
166,844 
166,486 
175,135 
179,176 
176,776 
195,869 
188,288 
190,994 
198,536 
196,792 
176,748 
196,574 
196,800 
240,797 
225,465 
229,936 
228,037 
218,874 
216,358 
206,018 
208,03s 
212,056 
220,241 
226,547 
234,390 
242,231 
281,651 
293,966 
298,271 
296,834 
296,789 
293,163 
237,468 


During  the  years  1877-80  wholesale  dealers  in  malt  liquors  are  included 
with  retail  dealers. 

The  figures  for   1891   cover  a  period  of  fourteen  months. 


Index 


ADAMS,  JOHN 

Agitating  for  Constitution  14 

Attitude  Toward  Liquor  Traffic 99 

On  Army  Liquor  Ration  130 

On  Indians   160 

ADAMS,  JOHN  QUINCY.     Mentioned 25,  227 

ADULTERATION 

Action  of  Congress  Against 20 

Liquor  Dealers  Oppose  Laws  Against 21 

John  M.  Atherton  on S4 

David  A.  Wells  on  Imitation  Wines 104 

Fortified  Wines 105 

Legislation   Against,    in   Europe 109 

Industrial  Alcohol   114 

Pure  Food  and  Drug  Act 119 

AGRICULTURAL  COUNCIL  OF  THE  PYRENEES 

ORIENTALS.     Action  of  Against  Adulterated  Wines       111 

ALASKA 

Police  Power  of  Congress  over 17 

How  Governed   209 

Early  Conditions  in 216 

Purchase  of 217 

Grant's  Proclamation 217 

Complications   of   Enforcement 218 

Government  of,  1884  Established 219 

Movement  for  High  License  in 220 

Governor  Brady  on  Delinquent  Office  Holders 220 

Overthrow  of  Prohibition  in 220,  239 

ALCOHOL 

For    Fortification     106 

Denatured  Alcohol 115 

Compounds  of 119 

Statistics  Denatured  Alcohol 118 

ALE,   (See  Malt  Liquors.) 

ALTO  DOURO.     Adulterated  Wines  and 112 

0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  249 

AMERICAN  ANTI-SALOON  LEAGUE 

Efforts  in  Anti-Canteen  Fight 154 

AMERICAN  INDIANS.     (See  Indians.) 

AMERICAN  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY 

Mentioned 69 

Cited  213 

AMERICAN  TEMPERANCE  UNION 

Mentioned 33,  69,  132.  137.  155.  156.  157,  185 

AMES,  FISHER.     Quoted 42 

ANTI- SALOON  LEAGUE. 

(See  American  Anti- Saloon  League.) 

ARDENT  SPIRITS.     (See  Spirituous  Liquors.) 

ARGENSEN,  VICOMTE  d' 

Decrees  Death  Penalty  for  Selling  to  Indians 170 

ARIZONA.    Indian  Troubles  in 207 

ARMY 

Chapter  on 125 

Continental   Army  Ration 126 

Whisky  Troubles  in  Continental  Army .126 

Ration  of  1790 128 

Liquor  in  War  of  1812 130 

Rum  Ration  Opposed  by  Calhoun 131 

Opposed  by  John  H.  Eaton 132 

John  Adams'  Views  on  Liquor  Ration 130 

Gen.  Macomb  on  Spirit  Ration 133 

Adj.  Gen.  Jones  on  Spirit  Ration 133 

Maj.  Gen.  Gaines  on  Spirit  Ration 134 

Statistics  of  Desertions  Before  1830 134 

Gen.  Eaton  Discontinues  Ration 134 

Gen.  Cass'  Order  as  to  Rations 136 

Daniel  Webster  Opposes  Spirit  Ration 137 

Secretary  Crawford  Prohibits  Sutlers  Selling  Spirits.  . .  .138 

Gen.  Scott  on  Drink  in  Mexican  War 138 

Senator  Pomeroy  on  Drink  in  Army 139 

Gen.  McClellan  on  Army  Drinking 140 

Discontinues  Spirit  Ration 141 

Temperance  Propaganda   in 142 

President  Hayes  Abolishes  Beer 144 

Wine  and  Beer  Recognized  by  as  Non-Intoxicating 145 

Origin  of  Beer  Canteen 145 

General  Orders  of  1895 148 

Gen.  Howard  on  Army  Canteen 149 

Gen.  Corbin's  Early  View 149 

Grigg's  Decision  152 


250    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

Gen.  Sternberg's  Early  View  of  Canteen 150 

Canteen  Abolished  by  Congress 151 

Appropriations  for  Amusements  in 154 

Drink  in  Confederate  Army 154 

ATHERTON,  JOHN  M.,  on  Internal  Revenue 84 

AVAUGOUR,  GOV.     Mentioned 170 

BANCROFT,  H.  H.     Cited 216 

BARBOUR,  JAMES,  Report  of,  on  Indian  Regulations 197 

BARTMEYER  vs.  IOWA.     Case  Cited   25 

BASTABLE.     Quoted  on  Revenue 97 

BATES,    ISAAC    C.      Mentioned 25 

BEECHER.  LYMAN.     Referred  to 99 

BEER.     (See  Malt  Liquors.) 
BEER   CANTEEN.      (See  Army.) 

BEER  CO.  vs.  MASS.     Case  Cited 26 

BILL  OF  RIGHTS.     Mentioned 13 

BITTERS    119 

BLACK  CODE,  THE.    Referred  to 212 

BLACK  DRINK,  of  the  Indians 161 

BLACK  HAWK  WAR.      Caused  by  Liquor  Traffic 168 

BLACK  SNAKE.     Temperance  Efforts  of 186 

BLAIR,  HENRY  W. 

Mentioned  227 

Efforts  for  Commission  of  Inquiry 234 

BLOCK,  ELIAS  &  SONS.     Litigation  With 78 

BLUE  JACKET.     Mentioned 187 

BONDED  WAREHOUSES 

Provided  for 100 

Regulations  Concerning   101 

BOTTLING  IN  BOND.    Act  March  3.  1897 103 

BOWMAN  CASE.     Cited .24 

BRACKENRIDGE,  HUGH  H.     Mentioned 62 

BRACKENRIDGE,  H.  M.     Mentioned 62 

BRADLEY,  JUSTICE.     On  Prohibition 26 

BRADY,  JOHN  G. 

Urges  Overthrow  of  Prohibition  in  Alaska 220,  239 

BRANT,  THOMAS.    Mentioned 187 

BRICE,  W.  A.     Mentioned,  Frontispiece. 

BRIGGS,  GEO.  N.     Referred  to 227 

BROWN,  DAVID.     Mentioned 178 

BROWN,  JOHN.     Mentioned 178 

BRUNO,  GIORDANO.     Victim  of  Personal  Liberty 10 

BRUSSELLS  CONFERENCE.     Account  of 241 

BUCHANAN.  JAMES.     Mentioned 227 


a.J^^-^-^^'^  f 


lb  ^ 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  251 

BULL.  RUN.    Drunkenness  at 139 

BUTLER,  B.  F. 

Interdicts  Intoxicants  from  His  Command 142 

CALHOUN,  JOHN  C. 

On  Tariff 44 

Opposes  Rum  Ration  in  Army 130 

CANADA 

Early  Prohibition  of  Selling  to  Indians 169 

CANTEEN.     (See  Army.) 

CAPERS,  JOHN  G.     Rulings  of 122 

CARHEIL,  ETIENNE.     Efforts  to  Protect  Indians 172 

CARLISLE,  JOHN  G. 

Aids   Distillers 103 

In  Congress   233 

CARTIER,   JACQUES.     Mentioned 162 

CASS,  LEWIS 

Mentioned     35 

Opposes  Spirit  Ration  in  Army 136 

Temperance  Efforts  of 225 

Mentioned     227 

On  the  Liquor  Traffic 230 

CATHAY,    RANDOLPH   W.      Mentioned,   Dedication. 

CHARLES  II.    Action  of  Against  Adulterated  Wines 110 

CHARTERED  WINE  COMPANY  OF  OPORTO 113 

CHEROKEE  INDIANS 

Temperance    Movement    Among 187 

Prohibition  Law  of  1819 188 

Of  the  Western  Cherokees 189 

National  Cherokee  Temperance  Society 189,  190 

Compact  of  1843 189 

In   Eufaula   Convention    132 

See  Also,  Indians  ^ 

CHEROKEE  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY. 
(See  Cherokee  Indians.) 

CHICASAW  INDIANS.     Temperance  Efforts  of  1890 191 

CHOATE,  RUFUS 

Employed  to  Fight  Local  Option 22 

Defends  Liquor  Interests  in  Important  Cases 32 

On  Prohibition   33 

Mentioned 227 

CHOCTAW  INDIANS 

Temperance  Efforts  of 190 

Early   Treaties  With 205 

CHRISTIAN  LOBBY.     Referred  to 238 


252         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

CIVIL  WAR 

Remote  Cause  of 14,  72 

Prohibition  Prior  to 70 

War  Tax  of  1862 70 

Debates  in  Congress  Over  War  Tax 73 

Prices  of  Whisky  During 82 

Drink  Troubles  in 139,  215 

CLAY,  HENRY.     On  Liquor  Traffic 229 

CLYMER,  GEORGE.     On  Liquor  Traffic 57 

CONFEDERATION.    Conditions  Under  as  to  Commerce.  .18,  19 

COLFAX,  SCHUYLER.     Mentioned 227 

COLLEGE  OF  PHYSICIANS  AND  SURGEONS 

Memorial  of 57 

COLOGNE  SPIRITS    114 

COLQUITT,  A.  H.     Mentioned 215,  227 

COLUMBIAN   SPIRITS    116 

COLUMBUS,  CHRISTOPHER.     Quoted  on  Indians 165 

COLUMELLA.     On  Fortified  Wines 109 

COMANCHE  INDIANS.     Temperance  Efforts  of 190 

COMINGORE,  DAVID  N.     Mentioned 78 

COMMISSION  OF  INQUIRY.     Movement  for 232 

COMMITTEE  ON  ALCOHOLIC  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 

Origin   of    232 

COMPENSATION 

U.  S.  Supreme  Court  on 27 

Congressman   Morris'   Resolution   for 72 

CONFEDERATE  ARMY.     Drink  in 154 

CONGO  FREE  STATE.     Prohibition  in 241 

CONGRESS 

Powers  Given  by  Constitution 15 

Police  Powers  of 16,  17 

Financial  Straits  of 38 

Passes  First  Customs  Act 43 

First  Excise  Act   58 

Repeals  Hamilton's  Internal  Revenue  Law 65 

Revenue  Act  of  1814 66 

Internal  Revenue  Resolutions  Considered 68 

Act  of  1862 '. 70 

Provisions  of  1794  and  1813 71 

Resolution  of  Congressman  Morris 72 

Resolution  on  Slavery 72 

Debates  on  War  Tax 73 

Act  of   1866    76 

Manipulation  of  Revenue  Laws '^ 86 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  253 

Act  of   1868 89 

And  Whisky  Frauds 93 

Action  on  Bonding  Period  of  Spirits 101 

On   Fortified   Wines 105 

Industrial    Alcohol 114 

Pure  Food  and  Drug  Legislation,  Discussed 119 

Efforts  to  curtail  Liquor  in  Continental  Army 127 

Legislation  as  to  Use  of  Liquor  in  the  Army 129 

Abolishes  Army  Canteen 151 

Steps  to  Protect  in  1802 179 

Prohibits  Selling  to  Indians 197 

Enforcement  of  Indian  Laws 204 

Summary  Treaties  With  Indians 205 

Power  of  Over  District  of  Columbia 211 

Over  Alaska    216 

Deals  With  Alaska  218 

Liquor  in  the  Capitol 222 

Debate   Over   Father   Mathew 229 

Agitation  for  Commission  of  Inquiry 232 

Efforts  of  United  States  Brewers'  Association 233 

Of  the  W.  C.  T.  U 236 

Of  the  National  Temperance  Society 236 

Of  the  Reform  Bureau 238 

Of  the  Anti-Saloon  League 239 

Passes  New  Hebrides  Law 240 

Ousts  the  Saloon  From  Public  Buildings 241 

Participates  in  the  Brussells'  Conference 241 

Senator  Lodge's   Resolution 242 

CONGRESSIONAL  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY 

Mentioned     35 

Formation    of 225 

CONGRESSIONAL  TOTAL  ABSTINENCE  SOCIETY 

Formation  of 225 

CONNECTICUT 

Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

Pequod  War    167 

CONSTITUTION 

Origin   of    12 

State  Constitutions    13 

Bill  of  Rights 13 

Magna    Charta 13 

Advocated  by  Hamilton,  Jay  and  Adams 13 

Jefferson's  Attitude  Toward 14 

Attempt  to  Authorize  Sumptuary  Legislation  in 15 


254         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Powers  Given  to  Congress 16 

Fourteenth  Amendment 16 

To  Sell  Liquor  not  a  Right  Guaranteed  by  Fourteenth 

Amendment    17 

Right  of  States  to  Prohibit  Liquor  Traffic  not  in  Con- 
flict With 26,  27,  28,  34 

Causes  of  Adoption  of   39 

CORBIN,  H.  C.    Early  View  of  Army  Canteen 150 

CORT,  WILLIAM.     Referred  to 126 

COXE,  TENCH.     Report  of 65 

CRAFTS,  W.  F.      Mentioned 238 

CRAIG.  NEVILLE  B.     Mentioned 62 

CRAWFORD,  GEO.  W.     Order  of 138 

CREEK  INDIANS.     Anti-Liquor  Compact  of  1843 190 

CROWLEY  vs.  CHRISTENSEN.     Case  Cited 28 

CURLEY   EYE.  GEORGE.     Mentioned 187 

CUSTOMS 

Powers  of  Congress  Over 16 

Chapter  on    32 

Right  to  Import  Does  not  Imply  Right  to  Sell 32,  35 

Decision   of   1847 32 

Cause  of  Establishment 37 

Provisions   of   1783 38 

Hamilton,  Madison  and  Ellsworth  Advocates  of 39 

Urged  by  Washington   39 

Hamilton    Quoted 40 

Madison's   Resolution   of   1789 40 

Thomas   Fitsimmons   of 41 

John  Lawrence  Quoted  on 42 

Fisher  Ames  Quoted  on 42 

Elbridge  Gerry  Quoted  on 43 

Washington    Approves    of 42 

First  Act  of  Congress   for 43 

Revenue    From     45 

Table  of  Customs  Receipts 46 

Rate  of  Duty  Increased 47 

Duty  on  and  Revenue  from  Prior  to  1826 48 

Effect  of  Excise  on  Importation  of  Liquors 48 

Tariff   Acts    49 

Customs  Rate  on  Liquors  of  Various  Laws. 50 

Receipts  From  Prior  to  1814 68 

DAWES   COMMISSION.     Mentioned    191 

DELAVAN,  E.  C. 

Temperance  Propaganda  of.  in  Army , 142 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  255 

Promotes  President's  Declaration  227 

DELAWARE.     Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

DEMOCRATIC  PARTY.     On  Prohibition 70 

DENATURED  ALCOHOL.     (See  Alcohol.) 

DeSMET,  FATHER.     Narrative  of 1D4 

DINGLEY,  NELSON.     Mentioned    227 

DISTILLED  SPIRITS.     (See  Spirits.) 
DISTRICT  OF  COLUMBIA 

How  Governed   209 

Early  Conditions  in 210 

Regulations  as  to  Saloonkeepers  and  Slaves 212 

Lottery   in    212 

Prohibition  in  213 

Early  Conditions  in 223 

Excise  Legislation   in    2  tO 

DIX,  GENERAL.     Mentioned 141,  142 

DONNACONNA,   CHIEF.       Mentioned 162 

DORCHESTER,   DANIEL.     Cited 233 

DOXEN,  CHARLES.     Mentioned 184 

DRUGGISTS.     Revenue  Regulations  as  to 119 

DUDLEY,  COL.     At  Battle  of  Ft.  Meigs 182 

DUGAN,  THOMAS  B.     Mentioned 150 

DUTIES.     (See  Customs.) 

EAGLE  SPIRITS 116 

EATON,  JOHN  H. 

Opposes  Spirit  Ration  132 

Prohibits  Spirit  Ration    134 

EDWARD  III.    Action  of  Against  Adulterated  Wines 110 

EDWARDS,  JUSTIN.     Work  of ; 227 

ELIZABETH,    QUEEN.      Mentioned 12 

ELLIOTT,   GEORGE.     Mentioned 178 

ELLSKWATAWA 

Institutes  Temperance  Campaign 180 

Mooney's  Estimate  of 183 

ELLSWORTH,  COL. 

Fight  of  Against  Drink  in  Army 142 

ELLSWORTH,  OLIVER.     Advocates  Constitution 39 

ENDICOTT,  EVAN.     Mentioned 178 

ENDICOTT,  W.  C.    Establishes  Army  Beer  Canteen 147 

ENGLAND 

Excise   in    54 

Stamp  Act    55 

Second  War  With , 66 

Laws   Against  Adulteration 110 


256    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

Industrial  Alcohol  in .116 

Second  War  With   130 

Operations  in  Alaska 216 

ESCALANTI,   CHARLES.     Mentioned,  Dedication. 

ESTAMAZA.     Temperance  Efforts  of 187 

EVANS,  JUDGE.    Decision  of  in  Revenue  Case 79 

EWELL,  GEN.     Opposes  Drink  in  Army 142 

EXCISE 

Power  of  Congress  as  to   15 

Effect  of,  on  Importation  of  Liquor 48 

Origin    of    54 

William  Pitt  on 55 

Virginia  Agreement  of  1774    55 

Boycott  of  Colonists  of 56 

Pennsylvania  Excise  of   1756 56 

Defended  by  Hamilton    56 

See  Internal  Revenue 
FEDERALIST,  THE 

Origin    of    39 

Mentioned   56 

FEDERALIST  PARTY.     First  Downfall  of 62 

FESSENDEN,  WILLIAM  PITT.      On  Prohibition 74 

FIELD,  JUSTICE.     On  Prohibition 28 

FILLMORE,   MILLARD.     Mentioned    227 

FIND  LEY,  WILLIAM.     In  Whisky  Rebellion 62 

FITZSIMMONS,  THOMAS.     Quoted 41,  58 

FIVE  CIVILIZED  TRIBES 

Temperance  Efforts  of 187 

Origin    of 39 

Mentioned     210 

FLETCHER  vs.  RHODE  ISLAND.     Case  Cited S3 

FOOTE,  A.  H. 

Opposes  Navy  Spirit  Ration 157 

Quoted   158 

FORTIFIED  WINES 

'  D.  A.  Wells  on 104 

Act  of  1890 105 

Statistics   of    106 

Act  of  1906 107 

In  European  Countries   108 

FT.  MEIGS.     Battle  of 181 

FRANCE 

Commercial  Treaties  with 34 

Debts  of  Congress  to , 38 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  257 

Excise  in 54 

Fortified  Wine  Laws  in 108 

Laws  Against   Adulteration Ill 

Industrial  Alcohol  in 116 

FREE  TRADE 

Account  of  44 

After  1818 69 

FRELINGHUYSEN,  THEODORE.     Mentioned 35,  227 

FRIENDS 

Baltimore  Yearly  Meeting  of,  Speech  of  Mechecunnaqua  174 

GAINES,  MA  J.  GEN.    On  Army  Spirit  Ration 134 

GARFIELD,  JAMES  A.     Mentioned f 227 

GENEODIYO.     Temperance  Efforts  of 184 

GEORGIA.     Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

GERMANY.    Industrial  Alcohol  in 116 

GERRY,  ELBRIDGE.     Quoted 43 

GIBSON,  GEORGE.     Mentioned 132 

GOOD  HUNT,  CAPT.     Mentioned 187 

GOUGH,  JOHN  B.     Referred  to 99 

GRAHAM,  WILLIAM 

Atempts  to  Collect  Internal  Revenue 61 

GRANT,  U.  S.    Proclamation  as  to  Alaska 217 

GRAY,  JUSTICE.    Dissents  to  Original  Package  Decision. . .    23 

GREENVILLE.     Treaty  of.  Mentioned 173 

GRIER,  JUSTICE.     On  Prohibition 35 

GRIGGS,  ATTORNEY  GENERAL 

Opinion  of,  on  Army  Canteen 152 

GRUNDY,  FELIX.      Mentioned 34,  35,  227 

HALLECK,  GEN.    Recommendation  as  to  Alaska 217 

HAMILTON,  ALEXANDER 

Agitating  for  Constitution 14,  39 

Quoted   on   Revenue 40 

On  Internal  Revenue 56 

Argument  for  Excise    57,   58 

Genius  of    64 

HAUANASSA.      Appeal  of 183 

HARD  HICKEY.     Mentioned 187 

HARLAN,  JUSTICE 

Dissents  to  Original  Package  Decision 23 

On  Prohibition    27 

In  Revenue  Case  79 

HARMER,  GENERAL.     Mentioned 173 

HARRISON,  BENJAMIN.     Mentioned 147 

HARRISON,  W.  H. 


2S8         THE   FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

Meets  Ellskwatawa 181 

Compact  With  Tecumseh 182 

Mentioned 227 

HAWAII.     Provisions  of  Enabling  Act 209 

HAWKINS,  JOHN.     Slave  Trader,  Mentioned 12 

HAYES,  R.  B.    Abolishes  Intoxicants  from  Army 144 

HECKWELDER.     Cited 162 

HEFF  DECISION.     Quoted 203 

HENDERSON.     Cited Ill 

HENRY  III.    Reissues  Magna  Charta 24 

HICKS.  CHAS.  B.    Mentioned 1*88 

HIGH  LICENSE  • 

Thomas  Fitsimmons  on 41 

James  Madison  on 41 

Memorial  College  Physicians  and  Surgeons 57 

A.  P.  Morrill  on 71 

Henry  Wilson  on 81 

Discussed 96 

In  Alaska 220 

Beginning  of  Movement  for 236 

HOLLAND.    Debts  of  Congress  to 38 

HOOKER,  GEN.    Opposes  Drink  in  Army 142 

HOWARD,  O.  O.     On  Drink  in  Army 150 

HOUSTON,  SAM.     On  Liquor  Traffic 230 

HUDSON,    HENRY.      Mentioned 162 

IMPAIRMENT   OF  CONTRACTS 26 

INDIANS 

Congress  Given  Control  of  Trade  with 16 

Chapter  on 160 

Cost  of  Indian  Wars 169 

Primal  Conditions  as  to  Drink 161 

The  Black  Drink 161 

Characteristics  of   163 

Columbus  on   165 

Bounties  on  Indian  Scalps 166 

King  Philip's  War 168 

Black  Hawk  War 168 

Drink  Among,  in  Canadian  Colonial  Times 169 

Work  Among,  of  Jesuit  Fathers 170 

Action  of  at  Pittsburg  in  1783 173 

Efforts  of  Mechecunnaqua  for 173 

Campaign  for  Temperance  of  Ellskwatawa » 181 

Efforts  of  Chief  Hauanossa 183 

Geneodiyo 184 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  259 

Iroquois  Temperance  League 184 

Agritation  of  Kahgegagahbowa 185 

Of  Black  Snake 186 

Of  the  Seneca  Chiefs 186 

Work  of  Bstamaza 187 

Laws  of  the  Cherokees 188 

Action  of  Western  Cherokees • 189 

National  Cherokee  Temperance  Society 189 

Anti-Liquor  Compact  of  1843   190 

Chicasaw  Prohibition  Laws  of  1828 190 

Treaties  With  Government 191 

Eufaula  Convention   192 

Sufferings  of  on  Account  of  Liquor  Traffic 193 

Narrative  of  Father  DeSmet 194 

Congress  Prohibits  Selling  to 198 

Powers  of  Indian  Agents 200 

Heff  Decision    203 

Law  Enforcement  for    204 

Treaties  With  205 

Change  in  Legal  Status  of 206,  208 

Horatio  Seymour  on    206 

In  Alaska 217 

INDIAN  TERRITORY 

Prohibition   Laws   of 192 

Special  Law  for 203 

How  Governed   209 

Prohibition  in  210 

INDUSTRIAL  ALCOHOL.     (See  Alcohol.) 

INQUISITION 

Erected  by  Advocates  of  Personal  Liberty,  II. 

INTERNAL  REVENUE 

Powers  of  Congress  as  to 16 

Effect  of  on  Importations 48 

Chapter  on 54 

Origin  of  the  System 54 

Provisions  of  the  Stamp  Act 55 

William  Pitt  on   55 

Hatred  of,  by  the  American  Colonists 55 

Pennsylvania  Act  of  1756 56 

Defended  by  Alexander  Hamilton 56 

Memorial  of  Robert  Morris 57 

Memorial  College  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons 57 

Gen,  James  Jackson  on 57 

Efforts  of  Alexander  Hamilton  for 57 


26o         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Early  Action  of  Congress  on 58 

First  Excise  Law 59 

Opposition  to 60 

Early  Troubles  in  Collecting 61 

Thomas  Jefferson  on 63,  64 

Collections  Prior  to  1801 65 

Collections  Prior  to  1814 68 

Act  of  1813 66 

Act  of  1814 66 

Monroe's  Recommendation  as  to 67 

Agitation  of  1826 68 

Act  of  1862 70 

A.  P.  Morrill  on 71 

Licensing  Provisions  in  Acts  1794  and  1813 71 

Henry  Wilson  on 73 

Debates  in  Congress 75 

Act  of  186,6   76 

Regulations  Concerning   77 

Judge  Harlan's  Decision 7? 

Charles  Sumner  on SI 

Henry  Wilson  on 81 

John  M.  Atherton  on 84 

United  States  Brewers  on 84 

Manipulation  of,  After  the  War 86 

John  Sherman's  Protest 86 

Report  of  Revenue  Commission 87 

Frauds  on 88 

Act  of  1868, 89 

Statistics  of  Distilled  Spirits    90 

Statistics  of  Breweries  91 

Production  Malt  Liquors  Since  1863. .  ^. 92 

Frauds  in   93 

Report  of  C.  H.  Van  Wyck 93 

David  A.  Wells  on 94 

Daniel  H.  Pratt  on 94 

Exposures  of  Frauds  in 94 

W.  C.  T.  U.  Protests  Against 95 

Ethics  of 96 

Collection  of 100 

Bonded  Warehouses  discussed 101 

Green  B.  Raum  and 102 

Action  of  Hugh  McCullough 102 

Bonding  Period  Extended 103 

Fortified  Wines 104 

0 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  261 

statistics  Fortified  Wines 106,  107 

Fortified  Wines  in  European  Countries 108 

Adulteration    109 

Denatured  Alcohol 115 

Statistics  Denatured  Alcohol 118 

Regulations  as  to  Drug-gists  119 

Regulations  as  to  Two  Per  Cent  Beer 124 

Special  Taxes  not  Required  of  Army  Canteens 149 

Statistics  of    Appendix 

INTERNATIONAL  REFORM  BUREAU.     Work  of 238 

INTERSTATE  COMMERCE 

Powers  of  Congress  Over 16 

Original  Unimportance  of 18 

Character  of,  Under  Confederation 19 

Jurisdiction  of  Congress  Over  Adulteration 20 

Complications  of  With  State  Police  Powers * 22 

Original  Package  Decision 23 

Wilson  Act 24 

Taney  Decision 22 

Justices  Waite,  Harlan  and  Gray  on 23 

IRIQUOIS  TEMPERANCE  LEAGUE 

(See  Six  Nations  Temperance  League.) 

ITALY.    Fortified  Wine  Laws  of 108 

JACKSON,  ANDREW 

Sows  Wild  Oats 132 

Opposes  Liquor  Ration  in  Army 134 

Signs  President's  Declaration 227 

JAY,  JOHN.    Advocate  of  Constitution 14,  39 

JEFFERSON,  THOMAS 

Views  on  Constitution 14 

On  Excise 64 

On   Liquor   Traffic    (footnote) 64 

On  Beer 130 

Mentioned  160 

Efforts  to  Protect  Indians 178 

JESUIT  FATHERS.    Work  Among  Canadian  Indians 169 

JOHNSON,  ELIAS.    Mentioned 185 

JONES,  ADJ.  GEN.    On  Army  Spirit  Ration 133 

KAHGEGAGAHBOWH.    Temperance  Efforts  of 185 

KANSAS  vs.  ZIEBOLD.     Case  Cited 26 

KENTUCKY 

Revenue  Litigation  in 78 

Production  of  Whisky  in 84 

Asked  to  Protect  Indians 179 


262    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

KIBD  vs.  PEARSON.    Case  Cited 28 

KING  JOHN.    Mentioned 24 

KING  PHILIP'S  WAR.    Caused  by  Liquor  Traffic 168 

KOSCIUSKO.     Mentioned   180 

KUMSKAKA.     Mentioned  181 

LAFAYETTE,  GEN.    Mentioned 229 

LA  FREDICRE,  MAJOR.     Mentioned 169 

LALEMANT,  JEROME. 

Temperance  Efforts  Among  Indians 170 

LA  MERCIER,  FATHER.    Work  Among  Indians 171 

LAVAL,  BISHOP.     Efforts  to  Keep  Liquor  from  Indians 170 

LAWLEWASEIKAW.     (See  Ellskwatawa.) 

LAWRENCE,  JOHN.     Quoted 41 

LEE,  RICHARD  HENRY 

Puts  Down  Whisky  Rebellion 62 

LEISY  vs'.  HARDIN.     Case  Cited 24 

LICENSE  CASES.    Cited 22 

LIEBER,  GEN.    Opinion  of 152 

LINCOLN,  ABRAHAM 

Mentioned 44 

Compensation  Idea 72 

Opposed  to  Liquor  License 76 

Signs  President's  Declaration 227 

LION  D'OR   116 

LIQUOR  TRAFFIC 

Chief  Justice  Waite  on 25 

Justice  Harlan  on 27 

Justice   Field   on 27 

Ruf us    Choate    on 33 

Chief  Justice  Taney  on 35 

Daniel    Webster    on 35 

Justice  Grier  on 36 

Justice  Woodbury  on    37 

Alexander  Hamilton  on   40 

James  Madison  on   .y 41 

Thomas  Fitsimmons  on 41 

John  Lawrence  on 41 

Fisher  Ames  on  42 

Elbridge  Gerry  on 43 

First   Customs    duty   on....' 43 

Revenue  from  Exaggerated    45 

Customs  Revenue  from    46 

Revenue  Act  of  1789 47 

Customs  Revenue  from  Prior  to  1826 Q  . . .   48 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  263 

Effect  of  Excise  on  48 

Rates  of  Dutj*  on  Under  Various  Laws 50 

Internal  Revenue,  Chapter  on ^ 53 

Licenses  Under  the  Stamp  Act 55 

Whisky  Rebellion    60 

Robert    Morris    on 57 

Thomas  Jefferson  on 64 

Revenue  from  Prior  to  1801 65 

Revenue  from  Prior  to  1814 , 68 

A.   P.   Morrill   on 70 

Resolution  of  Congressman  Morris 72 

Suggestion   of   Lincoln    72 

Unrestrained    After    1818 69 

Henry   Wilson   on 73 

Abraham  Lincoln  on 76 

W.  P.  Fessenden  on 75 

Henry  Wilson   on    81 

John  M.  Atherton  Urges  Taxation  on  84 

United  States  Brewers  Urges  Tax  on 84 

Report  Revenue  Commission 87 

Revenue    Frauds    88 

Statistics    of    Spirits 90 

Statistics  of  Breweries    91 

Statistics   Fermented    Liquors 92 

Effect  of  Taxation  on,  Discussed 93,  94,  95,  96,  97 

Bonding  Period   Discussed    101 

Fortified   Whines    104 

Adulteration  of  Wines    109 

Industrial  Alcohol   115 

Pure  Food  and  Drug  Legislation 119 

Two  Per  Cent  Beer 124 

Troubles  of  in  Continental   Army 126 

Troubles   of  in  American   Armies 137 

Abolished  from  Army   151 

Abolished  from  Navy 158 

Among    Indians 160 

Cause  of  King  Philip's  War  168 

Cause  of  Black  Hawk  War 168 

Cause  of  Pequod  War   167 

Trouble  Among  Canadian  Colonists  on  Account  of 169 

Protest  of  Mechecunnaq'ua   173 

Of   Ellskwatawa    181 

Of   Hauanassa    183 

Of  Geneodiyo 184 


264    THE  FEDERAL  GOVERNMENT 

Of  Kahgegagahbowh   185 

Of  Black  Snake   186 

Of  the  Seneca  Chiefs 186 

Cherokee  Laws  Against 188 

Indian  Anti-Liquor  Compact  of  1843 190 

Prohibition  Laws  of  the  Chicasaws,  1890 191 

Government   Treaties  With  Indians 192 

Sufferings  of  Indians  on  Account  of 193 

Action  of  Congress  to  Protect  the  Indians 198 

Report  Arizona  Grand  Jury 207 

Prohibition  of,  in  District  of  Columbia 213 

William  Wort  on  213 

Early  Troubles  by,  in  Alaska 216 

Henry  Clay  on   229 

W.  H.  Seward  on    229 

Lewis  Cass  on    230 

Sam  Houston  on   230 

LITTLE  TURTLE.     (See  Mechecunnaqua.) 

LOCAL  OPTION 

Power  of  Congress  to  Enact 17 

Right  of  States  to  Enact.  Sustained 22,  34 

In  District  of  Columbia 214 

LODGE,  H.  C.     Resolution  of 242 

LOGAN,  JOHN  A.      Mentioned 227 

LONG,  JOHN  D. 

Abolishes  Navy  Beer  Canteen 158 

Mentioned 227 

LONGSTREET,  JAMES 

LOVELL,  GEN.  JOSEPH.     Report  of 131 

On  Drink  in  Confederate  Army 154 

LOWRIE,    WALTER.      Mentioned 225 

LYTTON,  LORD.    Report  on  Adulteration Ill 

MACOMB,  GEN.  ALEXANDER 

On  Army  Spirit  Ration 133 

McCLELLAN,  GEN.  GEO.  B. 

On  Army  Drink   140 

Abolishes  Spirit  Ration 141 

McCULLOUGH,  HUGH.     Ruling  of / 103 

McCOOK,  GEN.     Mentioned   150 

Mcdonald,  gen.  john 

Exposure  of  Revenue  Frauds  of 94 

McKIM,  JOEL.     Mentioned 178 

Mckinley,  WILLIAM.     Mentioned  44 

MADISON,  JAMES  ^ 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  265 

Urges  Duty  on  Spirits 39,  40,  41 

Letter  of  Jefferson  to 63 

Signs  President's  Declaration  . . . . , 227 

MAGNA  CHARTA 

Mentioned     13 

And  Prohibition  24 

MAINE 

Prohibition  Opposed  by  Democrats  in 70 

Prohibition    in    75 

MALT  LIQUORS 

Original  Duty  on 43 

Rates  of  Duty  on  Under  Various  Acts 50 

Statistics  of  Breweries   91 

Statistics  of  Since  1862  92 

Two  Per  Cent  Beer 124 

In  the  Continental  Army  126 

Abolished  from  Army  by  President  Hayes 144 

Recognized  by  War  Department  as  Non-Intoxicating. .  .145 

Congress  Prohibits  Selling  to  Indians 200 

Statistics  of    Appendix 

MANHATTAN.     Origin  of  Name   162 

MARQUETTE  MISSION.     Referred  to 172 

MARSH,  JOHN 

Referred  to    99 

Cited     140 

MARSHALL,  THOMAS  F. 

Referred  to 99 

Quoted   227 

MASSACHUSETTS 

Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

Washington's  Order  at  Cambridge    127 

Early  Indian  Laws   167 

Prohibits  Selling  Liquor  to  Indians  in  1633 169 

MASSASOIT.     Mentioned    162 

MARYLAND 

Troops  for  Whisky  Rebellion   62 

Early  Liquor  Licenses  in   65 

Continental  Rum  Ration    127 

Address  of  Mechecunnaqua 174 

Formation  of  District  of  Columbia  from 212 

MATHER,  COTTON.     Quoted   168 

MATHER,  INCREASE.     Quoted  168 

MATHEW,  THEOBALD 

Mentioned     70 


266         THE  FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

American  Campaign  of 228 

Debate  in  Congress,  over 229 

MECHECUNNAQUA    (Little  Turtle) 
Portrait  of,  Frontispiece 

Record  of   173 

Address  at  Baltimore    174 

MEETHEETRASHE.      Mentioned   181 

MERWIN,  J.  B.      Mentioned 76 

METCALF,  VICTOR  H,    Referred  to 115 

MILES,  NELSON  A. 

Recommends  Abolishing  Drink  from  Army 143 

Opposes  Army  Canteen 153 

MONROE,  JAMES 

Recommends  Removal  of  Excise 67 

Mentioned    131,  227 

MOONEY,  JAMES.      Quoted    183 

MORRILL,  A.  P.  ■   On  Liquor  Traffic VO 

MORRILL,  LOT  M.     Mentioned   227 

MORRIS,  CONGRESSMAN 

Resolution  of,  on  Compensation 72 

MORRIS,  ROBERT.    On  Liquor  Traffic 57 

MORRISON,  JOHN.    Mentioned,  Dedication. 

MORROW,  HENRY  A.     Establishes  Army  Club 145 

MORSELL,  JUDGE.     Decision  of 214 

MUGLER  vs.  KANSAS.     Case  Cited   26 

NATIONAL  CHEROKEE  TEMPERANCE  SOCIETY 
(See  Cherokee  Indians) 

NATIONAL  PROTECTIVE  ASSOCIATION.     Mentioned 84 

NATIONAL  PURE  FOOD  AND  DRUG  CONGRESS 

Action  of 114 

NAVY 

Chapter  on 155 

Rum  Ration  of  Continental  Congress 155 

Temperance  Movement  in  156 

W.  H.  Seward  on  Drink  in 156 

Spirit  Ration  of  1861   157 

Spirit  Ration  Abolished 157 

Admiral  Foote  on   157 

Order  of  John  D.  Long 158 

NEBRASKA.     High  License   in 236 

NELSON,  JUSTICE.     On  Prohibition 35 

NEW  HAMPSHIRE.     Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

NEW  HEBRIDES.     Law,  Quoted   240 

NEW  JERSEY 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  267 

Early  Failure  of  Excise  in 56 

Troops  for  Whisky  Rebellion   02 

Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in    65 

Laws  Regarding  Indians    166 

Prohibits  Selling  Liquor  to  Indians  in  1769 169 

NEW  YORK.     Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

NEW  YORK  PACKET.     Mentioned    40 

NORTH  CAROLINA 

Opposition  to  Excise  in 60 

Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

Bounty  of,  on  Indian  Scalps 165 

O'CONNELL,  DANIEL.     Mentioned   228 

OHIO.     Asked  to  Protect  Indians   179 

OKLAHOMA.     Law  Enforcement   for 204 

ORIGINAL  PACKAGES 

Rule  of  1872  as  to   21 

Decision  of  1888   23 

Decision  of  1847   23 

Wilson  Law  24 

Results   of 237 

OSAGE  INDIANS.     Temperance  Efforts  of 190 

OSCEOLA.     Meaning  of  Name 161 

PARNELL,  GEO.     Report  of   88 

PATH-KILLER.     Mentioned    188 

PENNSYLVANIA 

Excise  of  1756 56 

Opposition  to  Excise  in 60 

Whisky   Rebellion   in 64 

-  Troops  for  Whisky  Rebellion • 62 

Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

Army  Spirit  Ration  of  1776 127 

Bounties  on  Indian  Scalps    166 

Prohibits  Selling  to  Indians  in  1701 169 

Action  of  Indians  at  Pittsburg  in  1783 178 

PEQUOD  WAR.    Caused  by  Liquor  Traffic 167 

PERSONAL  LIBERTY 

Development  of   9 

Discussed    10 

Fourteenth  Amendment  to  Constitution 16 

Magna  Charta  Provisions 24 

Inherent  Rights    24 

United  States  Supreme  Court  Decisions  on 26,  27,  28 

Rufus  Choate  on  33 

Whisky  Rebellion    60 

And  Collection  of  Revenue   100 


268         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

PIERCE,  FRANKLIN.    Mentioned 227 

PIERCE  vs.  NEW  HAMPSHIRE.    Case  Cited 33 

PITT,  WILLIAM.     On  Stamp  Act 55 

PLINY.     On  Fortified  Wines 109 

PLUMB,  PRESTON  B.     Mentioned 234 

POLICE  POWER 

Of  Congress   16,  17 

Over  Alaska    17 

Of  the  States   22,  24,  26,  27,  28 

Of  Indian  Agents    200 

Over  District  of  Columbia 211 

Over  Alaska 216 

POLK,  JAMES  K.     Mentioned 227 

POLYGAMY.     Defended  by  Personal  Liberty  Advocates 9 

POMEROY,  SENATOR 

On  Prohibition   75 

On  Drink  in  the  Army   139 

PORTER.     (See  Malt  Liquors.) 
POST  CANTEENS.     (See  Army.) 

POTTAWATOMIE  INDIANS.     Sufferings  of 194 

PORTO  RICO.    Power  of  as  to  Liquor 209 

POWERS,  JOHN  T.     Referred  to 214 

PRATT,  DANIEL  H. 

On  Revenue  Frauds   94 

On  Imitation  Wines   104 

PRESIDENTS  DECLARATION.     Account  of 228 

PRICES.     Effect  of  Taxation  on 82 

PRICE,  W.  A.     Mentioned   78 

PRINTUP,  HORATIO  R.     Mentioned   184 

PROCTOR,  R.  A.    Promotes  Army  Beer  Canteen .147 

PROHIBITION 

Not  Impaired  by  Fourteenth  Amendment 16 

Power  of  Congress  to  Prohibit 17 

Of  Adulteration  of  Foods 20 

Original  Package  Troubles 23 

Sustained  by  United  States  Supreme  Court 24 

Chief  Justice  Taney  on   22,  35 

Chief  Justice  Waite  on  25 

Justice  Harlan  on   27 

Justice  Field  on 28 

Justice  Bradley  on    26 

Not  an  Impairment  of  Contracts 25 

Rufus  Choate  on   _. 33 

Justice   Grier  on 36 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  269 

Justice  Nelson  on   36 

Justice  Woodbury  on 37 

Elbridge  Gerry  on  43 

A.  P.  Morrill  on   71 

Prior  to  Civil  War   70 

Protected  in  Revenue  Laws  of  1794  and  1813 71 

Proposal  of  Congressman  Morris 72 

Henry  Wilson  on   73,  81 

W.  P.  Fessenden  on   76 

Army  Prohibition,  Rule  of  Continental  Congress 127 

Selling  to  Indians  in  Early  Canadian  Colonies 169 

Massachusetts  act  of  1633 169 

New  Jersey  Act  of  1679 169 

Pennsylvania  Act  of  1701   169 

By  Western  Penn.  Indians  in  1783 173 

Efforts   of  Mechecunnaqua    173 

Laws  of  the  Cherokees  188 

Of  the  Choctaws   190 

Of  the  Chicasaws   191 

Government    Treaties    191 

Eufaula  Convention  of  1902 192 

By  Congress  of  Selling  to  Indians 198 

Heff  Decision 203 

For  Indian  Territory   203 

In  District  of  Columbia   214 

In  Alaska    218 

Commission   of  Inquiry    232 

Original  Package  Controversy  237 

New  Hebrides  Law    240 

Wright's   Investigations    241 

In   Government   Buildings    241 

Brussells  Conference    241 

Senator  Lodge's  Resolution    242 

PROPHET,  THE,     (See  Ellskwatawa.) 

PUKEESHENO.     Mentioned    180 

PURE  FOOD  AND  DRUG  ACT.    Features  of 119 

RAMRODS.     Mentioned   75 

RANWELL,  JOHN.     Action  Against  Adulteration Ill 

RAPE.    A  Doctrine  of  Personal  Liberty 11 

RAUM,  GREEN  B.     Recommendation  of 102 

REED,  T.  B.     Referred  to   233 

REFORM  BUREAU.     (See  International  Reform  Bureau.) 
REVENUE 

From  Liquors   46 


270         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

From  Liquors  Prior  to  1826 48 

Customs,  Chapter  on  32 

Internal  Revenue 54 

Stamp  Act 55 

First  Internal  Revenue  Law  58 

Whisky  Rebellion    61 

From  Liquors  Prior  to  1801 65 

From  Liquor  Prior  to  1814   68 

Act  of  1862 70 

Revenue  Debates  in  Congress 73 

Act  of  1866 76 

Effect  of  War  Tax  on  Prices  82 

Frauds  on 88 

Distilled  Spirits   90 

Malt  or  Fermented  Liquors 92 

Frauds  in   93 

Bastable  on    97 

Manipulation  of  Bonding  Periods 101 

Statistics  of  Fortified  Wines  106,  107 

Industrial  Alcohol 115 

Regulations  as  to  Druggists .119 

As  to  Two  Per  Cent  Beer 124 

RHODE  ISLAND.     Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

ROBBERY.     A  Doctrine  of  Personal  Liberty 11 

ROBERTS,  SAM.     Mentioned,  Dedication. 

ROME,  ANCIENT.    Adulteration  of  Wines  in 109 

RUM.     (See  Spirits.) 

RUSH.  BENJAMIN.     Referred  to    99 

RUSSIA 

Fortification   Laws   in    109 

Operations  of  in  Alaska   216 

RUSSIAN-AMERICAN  FUR  COMPANY 

Operations  of,  In  Alaska 216 

ST.  CLAIR,  GEN.     Mentioned 173 

SCOMP,  H.  A.     Cited ; 155 

SCOTT,  GEN.  WINFIELD.     On  Army  Drink 138 

SEMINOLE  INDIANS.    Temperance  Efforts  of 190 

SENECA  CHIEFS.     Petition  of 186 

SENECA  STEEL.     Mentioned 187 

SEWARD,  W.  H.     On  Drink 156,  229 

SEWELL,  THOMAS.     Referred  to 99 

SEYMOUR,  HORATIO.     On  Indians 206 

SHAW,  LESLIE  M.    Referred  to 115 

SHERMAN,  JOHN 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  271 

Mentioned 44 

On  Manipulation  of  Excise  Laws S6 

SIMPSON,  GEO.     Report  of,  on  Alaska 216 

SIX  NATIONS  TEMPERANCE  LEAGUE.      Work  of 184 

SKY.  JOHN.      (See  Hauanossa.) 
SLAVERY 

A  Personal  Liberty  Doctrine 11 

Resolution  for  Compensation  for 72 

Of  Indians  in  Colonial  Times 166 

In  District  of  Columbia .* 212 

SLOCUMB  LAW.      Mentioned 236 

SMALL  CLOUD  SPICER.      Mentioned 187 

SMITH,  CAPT.      Mentioned   187 

SMITH.  SAMUEL 

Letter  of  Jefferson  to 64 

Efforts  for  Indians   178 

SNETHEN,  WORTHINGTON  G.     Mentioned   212 

SORBONNE.    On  Prohibition 171 

SOUTH  CAROLINA 

Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in .•. . .   65 

Bounties  on  Indian  Scalps 166 

SPAIN 

Laws  as  to  Fortified  Wines 109 

War   With    116 

SPECIAL  TAXPAYERS 

Discussed    77,    79 

Provisions  as  to  Druggists 119 

Two  Per  Cent  Beer  Dealers 124 

Special  Taxes  not  Required  of  Army  Canteens 149 

Statistics  of * Appendix 

SPIRIT  RATION.     (See  Army.) 

SPIRITS 

Washington  Urges  Duty  on ^. . .   39 

Hamilton  Quoted  on    /•  •  •  •   40 

Madison  Urges  Duty  on '.....   40 

First  Tariff  on 43 

Rates  of  Duty  on 50 

Stamp  Act  Excise  on 55 

Excise  of  1791   58 

Whisky  Rebellion    60 

Licenses  for  Prior  to  1802   65 

Prices  of.  Manipulated  by  Congress 82 

Statistics  of,  Since  1862    90 

Act  of  1868   89 


2^2         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Whisky  Frauds 93 

Bonded  Warehouses  101 

For  Fortified  Wines 105 

Industrial  Alcohol   115 

Statistics  Denatured  Alcohol    118 

Pure  Food  and  Drug  Legislation 119 

Troubles  of  in  Continental  Army 126 

In    Later  Armies 137 

Consumption  of Appendix 

STAMP  ACT.     Liquor  Tax  in 55 

STATE  SOVEREIGNTY 

Mentioned   14 

Fourteenth  Amendment  and   16,  17 

Clashes  With  Interstate  Commerce  Laws 22 

Right  of  States  to  Prohibit  Liquor  Traffic 

Sustained 24,  26,  27,  28,  34,  35 

Whisky  Rebellion 60 

Litigation  Over  Special  Taxpayers 77 

STERNBERG,  GEO.  M.    Early  View  of  Army  Canteen 150 

STONE  vs.  MISSISSIPPI.    Case  Cited 25,  26 

STUART,   GILBERT.      Mentioned,   Frontispiece. 

SUMNER,  CHARLES.     On  License 8 

SUMPTUARY  LEGISLATION 

Proposed  in  Constitution   14 

Defeated  in  Constitutional  Convention  15 

SUTLER.     (See  Army.) 

SUTTON  CASE.    Cited 204 

SWITZERLAND.    Fortified  Wines  in 108 

TALL  CHIEF.      Mentioned 187 

TANEY,  ROGER  B. 

On  Local  Option  . 22 

On  Prohibition   . 35 

TAYLOR,  ZACHARY.     Mentioned   227 

TAX  RECEIPTS.     (See  Special  Taxpayers.) 
TECUMSEH 

Mentioned 180,  181 

Compact  With  Gen.  Harrison 182 

TENNESSEE.      Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

TENSKWAUTAWA.       (See  Ellskwatawa.) 

THOMAS,  EVAN.     Mentioned 178 

THOMPSON,  GEN.     Mentioned    161 

THURLOW  vs.  MASSACHUSETTS.     Case  cited 33 

TONICS    119 

TREATY  OF  GREENVILLE.     Mentioned 173,  182 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  273 

TUSCARORA  TEMPERANCE  CORNET   BAND 

Career   of    184 

TURNER  BILL.     To  Prevent  Adulteration  of  Beer 113 

TWO  PER  CENT  BEER.     Character  of 124 

TYLER,  JOHN.     Mentioned   227 

UNITED  STATES  BREWERS'  ASSOCIATION 

On  Revenue  Taxes   84 

Operations  in  Congress 233,  235,  236,  239 

UNITED  STATES  REVENUE  COMMISSION 

Quoted    85,   87 

Recommendation  to  Congress   89 

On  Fortified  Wines 104 

U.  S.  SUPREME  COURT 

On  Interstate  Commerce   17 

On  the  Right  to  Sell  Imported  Liquors  Regardless  of 

State  Laws    21 

On  the  Right  to  Sell  Interstate  Liquors  Regardless  of 

State  Laws    22 

Taney  Decision  Upholding  Local  Option 22 

Original  Package  Decision    23 

Sustains  Prohibition   24,  26,  34 

On  Inherent  Right  to  Sell  Liquor 25 

Bartmeyer  vs.   Iowa  Decision 25 

Chief  Justice  Waite  on  "Bartering  Away  Public 

Health  and  Morals" 25 

Harlan  on  Right  of  State  to  Enact  Prohibition 27 

Beer  Company  Case    26 

Mugler  Case    , 26 

Ziebold  Case   26 

Crowley  vs.  Christensen  Case   28 

Decision  Regarding  Treasury  Regulations 79 

Heff  Decision    203 

Sutton  Decision   204 

Results  of  Original  Package  Decision 237 

VAN  BUREN,  D.  T.     Mentioned 141 

VAN  BUREN.  MARTIN.     Mentioned 227 

VAN  WYCK,  C.  H.    Report  of,  on  Internal  Revenue 93 

VERMONT.      Revolutionary  Liquor  Licenses  in  65 

VINAGE.      Laws  of  France  as  to 108 

VIRGINIA 

Early  Opposition  to  Excise  in  60 

Troops  for  Whisky  Rebellion 62 

Revolutioniary  Liquor  Licenses  in 65 

Seizing  Indians  for  Slavery * 166 


274         THE   FEDERAL   GOVERNMENT 

Formation  District  of  Columbia  from 212 

VIZETELLY.      Cited    ; 111 

WAITE,  CHIEF  JUSTICE 

Dissents  to  Original  Package  Decision 23 

On  Prohibition   25 

WALDO,  ALBIGENCE.     Quoted    128 

WALKER,  SENATOR.     Mentioned   228 

WARD,  COL.     Referred  to   126 

WASHINGTON.     (See  District  of  Columbia.) 
WASHINGTON,  GEORGE 

On  Customs  Tariff  39 

Signs  First  Act  of  Congress  for  Customs  Law 43 

Order  as  to  Use  of  Liquor  in  Army 127 

On  Scalping  Indians 166 

Visited  by  Mechecunnaqua   173 

WASHINGTONIAN  MOVEMENT.      Mentioned 69 

WASHINGTON  SENTINEL.      Quoted 233 

WEBSTER.  DANIEL 

Employed  to  Fight  Local  Option 22 

Defends  Liquor  Interests  in  Important  Cases 32 

On  Temperance   35 

Opposes  Army  Spirit  Ration  . 137 

WELLS,  DAVID  A. 

On  Revenue  Frauds   94 

On  Fortified  Wines 104 

WELLS,  WILLIAM 

Account  of   174 

Efforts  for  Indians   179 

WERNER  vs.  WASHINGTON.     Case  Cited   214 

WESTERN  CHEROKEES.     (See  Cherokee  Indians.) 

WHIPPLE,  BISHOP.     On  Indian  Wars 160 

WHISKY  FRAUDS    93 

WHISKY  REBELLION 

Beginning  of   60 

Outrages  of   €1 

Washington's  Proclamation 63 

WHISKY  RING.     Exposure  of 94 

WICHITA  INDIANS.     Temperance  Efforts  of 190 

WILEY,  H.  W.    Efforts  Against  Adulteration 20 

WILLIAMS,  GEORGE.     Mentioned,  Dedication. 

WILSON  ACT.     Mentioned 24 

WILSON,  HENRY 

On  Prohibition 73 

On  License 81 


AND  THE  LIQUOR  TRAFFIC  275 

WILSON.  JAMES.     Referred  to 115 

WILSON  LAW.     Passage  of 237 

WINDOM,  WILLIAM 

Refuses  to  Aid  Distillers 102 

Mentioned     227 

WIPING    STICK.      Mentioned 187 

WINE 

Original  Duty  on 43 

Rates  of  Duty  on,  Under  Various  Laws 50 

Stamp   Act  Duty   on 55 

Licenses-  Prior  to  1802 65 

Fortified    104 

Consumption    of    Appendix 

WIRT,  WILLIAM.     On  Liquor  Traffic 213 

WOODBURY,  JUSTICE.    On  Prohibition 37 

W.  C.  T.  U. 

Protests  Against  Revenue 96 

Influence  in  Congress 236,  239 

WRIGHT,  CARROLL  D.      Investigation  of 241 

WRIGHT,  JOEL.     Mentioned    178 

YANCY,  THOMAS.    Jefferson's  Letter  to 130 

YERKES,  JOHN  W.      On  Fortified  Wines 105 

ZONE  DE  PROHIBITION.     Account  of 241 


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